Effects of Surface and Bulk Polaritons on the Radiative Properties of a Multilayer Structure With a Left-Handed Medium

Abstract

The abrupt change in radiative properties caused by surface polariton resonance holds promise of chemical and biological sensors. The present work investigates the impact of surface and bulk polaritons on radiative properties, especially the reflectance, of a multilayer structure with a left-handed material (LHM). The analysis of the criteria for polaritons at an LHM layer between two different dielectric media provides a regime map that can be used to determine the existence of surface and bulk polaritons. Radiative properties are calculated in the attenuated total reflection (ATR) arrangement, revealing parameters that significantly affect the polariton phenomena. As the LHM layer becomes thicker, surface polaritons at two interfaces of the LHM layer are de-coupled with each other, and more bulk polaritons may be excited. At a certain angle of incidence, a surface polariton exists at just one boundary of the LHM layer, causing a considerable portion of incident radiation to penetrate through the layered structure. This work proposes the application of an LHM as a coupler of polariton phenomena regardless of polarization.Copyright © 2003 by ASME