Homogenization of plasmonic crystals: seeking the epsilon-near-zero effect. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • By using an asymptotic analysis and numerical simulations, we derive and investigate a system of homogenized Maxwell's equations for conducting material sheets that are periodically arranged and embedded in a heterogeneous and anisotropic dielectric host. This structure is motivated by the need to design plasmonic crystals that enable the propagation of electromagnetic waves with no phase delay (epsilon-near-zero effect). Our microscopic model incorporates the surface conductivity of the two-dimensional (2D) material of each sheet and a corresponding line charge density through a line conductivity along possible edges of the sheets. Our analysis generalizes averaging principles inherent in previous Bloch-wave approaches. We investigate physical implications of our findings. In particular, we emphasize the role of the vector-valued corrector field, which expresses microscopic modes of surface waves on the 2D material. We demonstrate how our homogenization procedure may set the foundation for computational investigations of: effective optical responses of reasonably general geometries, and complicated design problems in the plasmonics of 2D materials.

published proceedings

  • Proc Math Phys Eng Sci

author list (cited authors)

  • Maier, M., Mattheakis, M., Kaxiras, E., Luskin, M., & Margetis, D.

citation count

  • 5

complete list of authors

  • Maier, M||Mattheakis, M||Kaxiras, E||Luskin, M||Margetis, D

publication date

  • October 2019