Controlling surface plasmon polaritons propagating at the boundary of low-dimensional acoustic metamaterials

Abstract

As a novel type of artificial media created recently, metamaterials demonstrate novel performance and consequently pave the way for potential applications in the area of functional engineering in comparison to the conventional substances. Acoustic metamaterials and plasmonic structures possess a wide variety of exceptional physical features. These include effective negative properties, band gaps, negative refraction, etc. In doing so, the acoustic behaviour of conventional substances is extended. Acoustic metamaterials are considered as the periodic composites with effective parameters that might be engineered with the aim to dramatically control the propagation of supported waves. Homogenization of the system under consideration should be performed to seek the calculation of metamaterial permittivity. The dispersion behaviour of surface waves propagating from the boundary of a nanocomposite composed of semiconductor enclosures that are systematically distributed in a transparent matrix and low-dimensional acoustic metamaterial and constructed by an array of nanowires implanted in a host material are studied. We observed the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons. It is demonstrated that one may dramatically modify the properties of the system by tuning the geometry of inclusions.