Experimental verification of ‘waveguide’ plasmonics

Abstract

Surface plasmons polaritons are collective excitations of an electron gas that occur at an interface between negative-epsilon and positive-epsilon media. Here, we report the experimental observation of such surface waves using simple waveguide metamaterials filled only with available positive-epsilon media at microwave frequencies. In contrast to optical designs, in our setup the propagation length of the surface plasmons can be rather long as low loss conventional dielectrics are chosen to avoid typical losses from negative-epsilon media. Plasmonic phenomena have potential applications in enhancing light-matter interactions, implementing nanoscale photonic circuits and integrated photonics.