Generation of surface plasmon-polaritons by edge effects
For researchers in nanophotonics, this work provides a computational method to analyze edge-generated SPPs, but it is incremental as it applies existing numerical techniques to a specific geometry.
This paper describes the generation of surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) on atomically thick metamaterial sheets in 2D, showing that each edge acts as an SPP source that can dominate the diffracted field. Numerical examples demonstrate how sharp edges and conductivity changes significantly influence surface plasmons.
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.