Dispersion of Surface and Interface Phonon Polariton Modes in Wurtzite Based Multilayer System

Abstract

Dispersion of the surface and interface phonon polariton modes in wurtzite based multilayer system is investigated theoretically. In this study, we present a new formulation of the surface polariton (SP) dispersion relation for wurtzite based multilayer system. The expression is derived through solving Maxwell's electromagnetic equations directly by using algebraic manipulation method. The formulation is general and can be applied on any wurtzite layered structures in which the total number of layers in the system is equal or greater than two. In practice, the theory is employed to simulate the SP dispersion curves for several wurtzite layered structures, i.e., vacuum/ZnO, vacuum/ZnO/6H-SiC and vacuum/ZnO/GaN/6H-SiC. The features of these SP dispersion curves are analyzed and discussed in detail. It is shown that the characteristics of layers and the thicknesses of layers in the system have an important influence on the dispersion properties of the surface and interface phonon polariton modes.