Surface Electromagnetic Waves on the Interfaces of Gradient Dielectric Media: Visible Spectral Range

Abstract

This paper is devoted to a peculiar branch of surface electromagnetic waves, belonging to the visible spectral range. Contrary to the well known surface waves, supported by the sharp boundary of solid plasma in metals and semiconductors, the waves discussed here are shown a gradient interface of non‐conducting gradient dielectric without free carriers. The subsurface layer of this dielectric is characterized by the gradual decrease of dielectric permittivity ϵbold-italictrue(bold-italiczbold-italictrue) in the direction z, normal to the boundary z = 0, saturated in the depth of medium. Unlike the traditional condition ϵ<0, the field's localization near the interface of the dielectric is determined by another condition: grad ϵ<0, meanwhile ϵ<0. Spectra of surface modes are determined by the non‐local dispersion, stipulated by the spatial distribution ϵbold-italictrue(bold-italiczbold-italictrue). The spatial structure of surface wave fields is examined by means of two different exactly solvable models ϵbold-italictrue(bold-italiczbold-italictrue). The broadband and wide band spectral ranges of visible surface waves illustrating the sensitivity of their spectra to the fine details of distribution ϵbold-italictrue(bold-italiczbold-italictrue), presented by these models, are considered.

Omnidirectional excitation of surface waves and super-Klein tunneling at the interface between two different bi-isotropic media

“…More recently, there has been a growing interest in the different types of surface waves in other complex media such as Dyakonov waves excited at the interface of anisotropic media [9,10], optical Tamm plasmon polaritons excited on the surface of a photonic crystal [11][12][13], and surface plasmon polaritons associated with chiral media [14,15]. Surface polaritons on the surface of negative index media [16,17], surface waves due to a spatial inhomogeneity near the surface of semiconductors [18,19], surface waves in general bianisotropic media [20], and the influence of optical nonlinearity on surface plasmons [21][22][23] have also attracted some attention.…”