Terahertz surface plasmon polaritons on periodically corrugated metal surfaces

Based on a modal expansion of electromagnetic fields, a rigorous method for analyzing surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on a periodically corrugated metal surface has been formulated in this paper. This method takes into account the finite conductivity of the metal as well as higher-order modes within the grooves of the surface structure, thus is able to accurately calculate the loss of these spoof SPPs propagating along the structured surface. In the terahertz (THz) frequency range, the properties of the dispersion and loss of spoof SPPs on corrugated Al surfaces are analyzed. For spoof SPPs at THz frequencies, the strong confinement of the fields is often accompanied with considerable absorption loss, but the performance of both low-loss propagation and subwavelength field confinement for spoof SPPs can be achieved by the optimum design of surface structure. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.