The absorbance, reflectance, and transmittance of a linearly polarized, obliquely incident plane wave were calculated for the planar interface of a metal and a sculptured nematic thin film (SNTF) in the Kretschmann configuration, the wave vector of that plane wave being arbitrarily oriented with respect to the morphologically significant plane of the SNTF. The permittivity profile of the chosen SNTF was supposed to have been sculptured during physical vapor deposition by varying the vapor incidence angle sinusoidally about a mean value. Regardless of the orientation of the wave vector, multiple surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) trains or waves of the same color but different phase speeds and guided by the metal/SNTF interface can be excited.
A sculptured nematic thin film (SNTF) is an assembly of parallel nanowires that are shaped in a fixed plane orthogonal to the substrate on which the film is deposited. The absorbance, reflectance, and transmittance of a linearly polarized, obliquely incident plane wave were calculated for a planar metal/SNTF interface in the Kretschmann configuration, the wave vector of the plane wave lying wholly in the morphologically significant plane of the SNTF. The permittivity profile of the chosen SNTF was supposed to have been sculptured during physical vapor deposition by varying the vapor incidence angle sinusoidally about a mean value. Calculations revealed that (i) multiple surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) trains of the same color can be independently guided by the metal/SNTF interface, (ii) not all SPP trains have to be co-propagating, and (iii) not all SPP trains have to be of the same linear polarization state. As different SPP trains move with different speeds, guided by the interface, exciting prospects emerge for error-free sensing and plasmonics-based communication.
A sculptured nematic thin film (SNTF) is an assembly of parallel nanowires that bend in a fixed plane orthogonal
to the substrate on which the film is deposited. The absorbances, reflectances, and transmittances of linearly
polarized, obliquely incident light were calculated for a planar SNTF-metal interface in the Kretschmann configuration. Empirical data on aluminum for the metal and titanium-oxide SNTFs were used for the calculations.
The solution of the boundary-value problem for the Kretschmann configuration revealed that more than one
surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) waves can be excited at the planar interface of a thin metal film and an SNTF.
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