THz Zenneck surface wave (THz surface plasmon) propagation on a metal sheet

Abstract

We present an experimental study of the propagation of the THz Zenneck surface wave on an aluminum sheet, now more commonly denoted as the THz surface plasmon (TSP). Here, the TSP pulse is generated by coupling the THz pulse from a metal parallel-plate waveguide onto the aluminum sheet; the propagated TSP pulse is detected at the output end of the sheet using a standard photoconductive dipole antenna. We separate the associated free-space THz pulse from the TSP pulse using a curved sheet. The observed weakly guided TSP propagation has the expected low group velocity dispersion, but also has anomalously high attenuation and much tighter binding to the metal surface than predicted by Zenneck theory.