Exact surface-plasmon polariton solutions at a lossy interface
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Updated: May 12, 2026

Determination of the Excitation and Coupling Rates Between Light Emitters and Surface Plasmon Polaritons
Published on: July 21, 2018
Andreas Norrman1, Tero Setälä, Ari T Friberg
1Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. andreas.norrman@uef.fi
Abstract:
Making use of a rigorous electromagnetic treatment, we demonstrate that the approximate results that are customarily employed for the analysis of a plasmon field at a metal/dielectric boundary are incorrect even in some situations in which they are supposed to hold. We show further that a new type of surface-plasmon solution exists that does not follow from the standard approximate analysis. Energy-flow considerations indicate that the new polariton is a backward-propagating surface wave, as encountered in manmade structures. Our results are likely to find applications in metal/semiconductor and metamaterial plasmonics.
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