Negative index modes in surface plasmon waveguides: a study of the relations between lossless and lossy cases.
Surface plasmon modes in structures of metal-insulator-metal (MIM), insulator-insulator-metal (IIM) and insulator-metal-insulator (IMI) are studied theoretically for both lossless and lossy cases. Causality dictates which solutions of Maxwell's equations we accept for these structures. We find that for both lossless and lossy cases, the negative index modes and positive index modes are independent and should be treated separately. For the lossless case, our results differ from some published papers. By studying in detail the lossy case, we demonstrate how the curves should look like.
Zhang
Yuan
Y
Institute of Optoelectronic Materials and Technology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.
Zhang
Xuejin
X
Mei
Ting
T
Fiddy
Michael
M