Abstract
We study theoretically the characteristics of surface waves excited at the interface between a metal and a general bi-isotropic medium, which includes isotropic chiral media and Tellegen media as special cases. We derive an analytical dispersion relation for surface waves, using which we calculate the effective index and the propagation length numerically. We also calculate the absorptance, the cross-polarized reflectance and the spatial distribution of the electromagnetic fields for plane waves incident on a bilayer system consisting of a metal layer and a bi-isotropic layer in the Kretschmann configuration, using the invariant imbedding method. The results obtained using the invariant imbedding method agree with those obtained from the dispersion relation perfectly. In the case of chiral media, the effective index is an increasing function of the chirality index, whereas in Tellegen media, it is a decreasing function of the Tellegen parameter. The propagation length for surface waves in both cases increase substantially as either the chirality index or the Tellegen parameter increases. In Tellegen media, it diverges to infinity when the effective index goes to zero, whereas in chiral media, it does when the parameters approach the cutoff values where quasi surface waves are excited. We investigate the characteristics of quasi surface waves excited when the chirality index is sufficiently large.
Highlights
Bi-isotropic media, which include isotropic chiral media and Tellegen media as special cases, are the most general form of linear isotropic media, where the electric displacement D and the magnetic induction B are related to both the electric field E and the magnetic intensity H [1]
We investigate the characteristics of quasi surface waves excited when the chirality index is sufficiently large
In our study of surface waves in bi-isotropic media, we use both the analytical dispersion relation derived in the previous section and the imbedding method (IIM), which can be applied to more general situations to calculate experimentally relevant quantities
Summary
Bi-isotropic media, which include isotropic chiral media and Tellegen media as special cases, are the most general form of linear isotropic media, where the electric displacement D and the magnetic induction B are related to both the electric field E and the magnetic intensity H [1]. We study theoretically surface waves excited on the interface between a metal and a general bi-isotropic medium. We use a generalized version of the invariant imbedding method (IIM) for solving wave propagation problems in arbitrarily-inhomogeneous stratified bi-isotropic media, which we have developed recently [15]. Using this method, we calculate the absorptance, the cross-polarized reflectance and the spatial distribution of the electromagnetic fields for incident waves of various polarizations in the Kretschmann configuration. In Tellegen media, it diverges when the effective index goes to zero, whereas in chiral media, it does when the parameters approach the cutoff values where quasi surface waves are excited.
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