Abstract

The propagation of electromagnetic surface waves guided by the planar interface of two isotropic chiral materials, namely materials $\mathcal{A}$ and $\mathcal{B}$, was investigated by numerically solving the associated canonical boundary-value problem. Isotropic chiral material $\mathcal{B}$ was modeled as a homogenized composite material, arising from the homogenization of an isotropic chiral component material and an isotropic achiral, nonmagnetic, component material characterized by the relative permittivity ${\epsilon }_a^{\mathcal{B}}$. Changes in the nature of the surface waves were explored as the volume fraction $f_a^{\mathcal{B}}$ of the achiral component material varied. Surface waves are supported only for certain ranges of $f_a^{\mathcal{B}}$; within these ranges only one surface wave, characterized by its relative wavenumber $q$, is supported at each value of $f_a^{\mathcal{B}}$. For $\mathrm{Re}\{{\epsilon }_a^{\mathcal{B}}\}>0$, as $|\mathrm{Im}\{{\epsilon }_a^{\mathcal{B}}\}|$ increases surface waves are supported for larger ranges of $f_a^{\mathcal{B}}$ and $|\mathrm{Im}\{q\}|$ for these surface waves increases. For $\mathrm{Re}\{{\epsilon }_a^{\mathcal{B}}\}<0$, as $\mathrm{Im}\{{\epsilon }_a^{\mathcal{B}}\}$ increases the ranges of $f_a^{\mathcal{B}}$ that support surface-wave propagation are almost unchanged but $\mathrm{Im}\{q\}$ for these surface waves decreases. The surface waves supported when $\mathrm{Re}\{{\epsilon }_a^{\mathcal{B}}\}<0$ may be regarded as akin to surface-plasmon-polariton waves, but those supported for when $\mathrm{Re}\{{\epsilon }_a^{\mathcal{B}}\}>0$ may not.

© 2019 Optical Society of America

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