Surface Plasmon Polaritons at Metal / Insulator Interfaces

Abstract

Surface plasmon polaritons are electromagnetic excitations propagating at the interface between a dielectric and a conductor, evanescently confined in the perpendicular direction. These electromagnetic surface waves arise via the coupling of the electromagnetic fields to oscillations of the conductor’s electron plasma. Taking the wave equation as a starting point, this chapter describes the fundamentals of surface plasmon polaritons both at single, flat interfaces and in metal/dielectric multilayer structures. The surface excitations are characterized in terms of their dispersion and spatial profile, together with a detailed discussion of the quantification of field confinement. Applications of surface plasmon polaritons in waveguiding will be deferred to chapter 7.