Edge plasmon-polaritons on isotropic semi-infinite conducting sheets

Abstract

From a three-dimensional boundary value problem for the time harmonic classical Maxwell equations, we derive the dispersion relation for a surface wave, the edge plasmon-polariton (EP), which is localized near and propagates along the straight edge of a planar, semi-infinite sheet with a spatially homogeneous, scalar conductivity. The sheet lies in a uniform and isotropic medium and serves as a model for some two-dimensional (2D) conducting materials such as the doped monolayer graphene. We formulate a homogeneous system of integral equations for the electric field tangential to the plane of the sheet. By the Wiener–Hopf method, we convert this system to coupled functional equations on the real line for the Fourier transforms of the fields in the surface coordinate normal to the edge and solve these equations exactly. The derived EP dispersion relation smoothly connects two regimes: a low-frequency regime, where the EP wave number, q, can be comparable to the propagation constant, k0, of the ambient medium, and the nonretarded frequency regime in which |q| ≫ |k0|. Our analysis indicates two types of 2D surface plasmon-polaritons on the sheet away from the edge. We extend the formalism to the geometry of two coplanar sheets.