Surface plasmon polaritons of the metamaterial four-layered structures

The surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) of four-layered structures composed of four kinds of materials-left-handed material, negative dielectric permittivity material, negative magnetic permeability material, and dielectrics-are investigated. The existence regions, dispersion relations, and excitation of the p and s polarized SPPs in several types of four-layered structures are studied in detail and it is shown that the properties of SPPs in different frequency regions are strongly dependent on the composite materials and their sequencing of the four-layered structures. The possibility of exciting and observing SPPs by the attenuated total reflection technique is also discussed. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America