Multiperiodicity in plasmonic multilayers: General description and diversity of topologies

Abstract

We introduce multiperiodicity in periodic metal-dielectric multilayers by stacking more than two types of metal and/or dielectric layers into the unit cell. A simple way to characterize arbitrary multiperiodic multilayers using permutation vectors is suggested and employed. Effects of multiperiodicity up to its fourth order are investigated. We demonstrate that various topologies of multiple-sheet isofrequency and dispersion surfaces exist for such plasmonic multilayers, including a photonic realization of nontrivial isolated Dirac cones.