Screening in the two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit coupling

We study the interplay between electron-electron interaction and Rashba spin-orbit coupling in the two-dimensional electron gas. Using the random phase approximation we predict new screening properties of the electron gas which result in extension of the region of particle-hole excitations and in spin-orbit induced suppression of collective modes. In particular, we observe that the spin-orbit coupling gives a finite lifetime to plasmons and longitudinal optical phonons, which can be resolved in inelastic Raman scattering. We evaluate the experimentally measurable dynamic structure factor and estimate the range of parameters where the described phenomena are mostly pronounced.