Surface plasmon polaritons in enantiomeric chiroplasmonic structures due to bianisotropy

Abstract

A new class of surface plasmon polaritons supported in identical enantiomeric chiral plasmonic structures is presented. The waves are caused by bianisotropy and are absent in the case of bi-isotropic media as well as in anisotropic structures without a magnetoelectric coupling. The existence of two distinct modes of the surface plasmon polaritons with unusual dispersion and polarization properties is predicted. The role of losses is investigated and the propagation length of the surface waves is determined. © 2011 Optical Society of America.