Surface plasmon-polariton waves guided by an interface of a metal and an obliquely mounted uniaxially chiral, bianisotropic material

ABSTRACT

The excitation of surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) waves was delineated for an interface of a metal and an obliquely mounted uniaxially chiral, bianisotropic material with optic axis making an arbitrary angle with the interface plane. Such a material can be fabricated as a parallel assembly of hellixes with the axis of the hellixes making an arbitrary tilt angle with the metallic substrate. The canonical boundary-value problem as well as the two prism-coupled configurations were investigated. The direction of propagation of SPP waves was restricted to be in the morphologically significant plane of the bianisotropic material that contains titled hellixes. It was found that the chirality parameter of the bianisotropic material has to have a magnitude smaller than a threshold in order for SPP waves to exist for all tilt angles. Also, the SPP wave can be excited in both prism-coupled configurations only by p-polarized plane waves.

Keywords:

• Surface plasmon-polariton waves
• Kretschmann
• Otto
• chiral medium
• bianisotropic medium

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge partial support for this work from the Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC) under the grant NRPU 2016-5905.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge partial support for this work from the Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC) [grant number NRPU 2016-5905].

Notes on contributors

Maimoona Naheed

Maimoona Naheed is a PhD candidate at the electronics department of the Quaid-i-Azam University. She received her BSc degree in mathematics and physics from the Punjab University in 2008. She completed her MSc and MPhil degrees in electronics from the Quaid-i-Azam University in 2011 and 2013, respectively. She is a student member of the SPIE and served as vice president of SPIE chapter of the Quaid-i-Azam University in 2015. Her research interests include optical sensors using surface waves, plasmonics, and photonics.

Muhammad Faryad

Muhammad Faryad is an assistant professor of physics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He received his BSc degree in mathematics and physics from the Punjab University in 2002, his MSc and his MPhil degrees in electronics from the Quaid-i-Azam University in 2006 and 2008, respectively, and his PhD degree in engineering science and mechanics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2012. He is a section editor of Optik–International Journal of Light and Electron Optics. He is a senior member of SPIE and OSA, and a member of the APS and the IEEE. His current research interests include computational electromagnetics, surface electromagnetic waves, complex optical materials, and photonic crystals.