Effective Surface Plasmon Polaritons Induced by Modal Dispersion in a Waveguide

Abstract

We provide further theoretical insights and experimental verification of the modal-dispersion-induced effective surface-plasmon polaritons (ESPPs) by engineering the transverse-electric (TE) modes in conventional rectangular waveguides. The complete field distributions, dispersion relations, and asymptotic frequency of the ESPPs are derived analytically. Wave-port excitations and smooth bridges are designed for the mode conversion between propagating modes in rectangular waveguides and the ESPPs. Analytical calculations and numerical simulations are performed for TE10- and TE20-mode-induced ESPPs, showing excellent agreement. Moreover, we design a double-layered substrate-integrated waveguide showing that ESPPs are supported at the interface between the two layers with different dielectric constants. This work opens up an avenue for low-frequency designer surface plasmons and may find potential applications in the design of compact filters, resonators, and sensors of ESPPs in the microwave and terahertz frequencies.