The Goos-Hänchen effect for surface plasmon polaritons

By means of an impedance boundary condition and numerical solution of integral equations for the scattering amplitudes to which its use gives rise, we study as a function of its angle of incidence the reflection of a surface plasmon polariton beam propagating on a metal surface whose dielectric function is ɛ1(ω) when it is incident on a planar interface with a coplanar metal surface whose dielectric function is ɛ2(ω). When the surface of incidence is optically more dense than the surface of scattering, i.e. when |ɛ2(ω)|≫|ɛ1(ω)|, the reflected beam undergoes a lateral displacement whose magnitude is several times the wavelength of the incident beam. This displacement is the surface plasmon polariton analogue of the Goos-Hänchen effect. Since this displacement is sensitive to the dielectric properties of the surface, this effect can be exploited to sense modifications of the dielectric environment of a metal surface, e.g. due to adsorption of atomic or molecular layers on it.