Generation of surface plasmon-polaritons by edge effects
Abstract
By using numerical and analytical methods, we describe the generation of fine-scale lateral electromagnetic waves, called surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs), on atomically thick, metamaterial conducting sheets in two spatial dimensions (2D). Our computations capture the two-scale character of the total field and reveal how each edge of the sheet acts as a source of an SPP that may dominate the diffracted field. We use the finite element method to numerically implement a variational formulation for a weak discontinuity of the tangential magnetic field across a hypersurface. An adaptive, local mesh refinement strategy based on a posteriori error estimators is applied to resolve the pronounced two-scale character of wave propagation and radiation over the metamaterial sheet. We demonstrate by numerical examples how a singular geometry, e.g., sheets with sharp edges, and sharp spatial changes in the associated surface conductivity may significantly influence surface plasmons in nanophotonics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1702.00848,
title = {Generation of surface plasmon-polaritons by edge effects},
author = {Matthias Maier and Dionisios Margetis and Mitchell Luskin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.00848},
year = {2017}
}