TE and TM Surface Waves at the Interface of a Left-handed Metamaterial

Abstract

In this paper, we present an analytical treatment for the electromagnetic surface waves propagating at the interface of a linear right-handed material and a linear left-handed material. In this connection, we use Maxwell equations to find the electric and magnetic field components corresponding to the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) wave polarizations. Electromagnetic boundary conditions are then employed on the field components at the interface to find the dispersion relations for both TE and TM waves. These dispersion relations are reduced to the case of TE and TM surface waves propagation along an interface between two different right-handed media. The dispersion relations are then analysed numerically by plotting them for the propagation frequency and the wave vector for both wave modes. Some features of waves propagating at these interfaces are found to be useful in microwave device applications.