Plasmon-Polaritons in Fishnet Hyperbolic Metamaterials

Abstract

Dielectric properties of fishnet metamaterial is described in effective medium approximation. The possibility is shown of realization of the regime when dielectric permittivity is approximately equal to zero. Theory is developed of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on the boundary between isotropic dielectric medium and epsilon-near-zero fishnet metamaterial. The influence of absorption on the SPPs properties in analyzed. It is shown that depending on the choice of the metamaterial constitutive parameters, phase velocity and energy flux of SPP can have either collinear or opposite directions.