Surface plasmon polaritons of symmetric and asymmetric metamaterialslabs

The p and s-polarized surface plasmon polaritons （SPPs） of symmetric and asymmetric slabs formed arbitrarily by four types of conventional materials： dielectrics, negative dielectric permittivity materials, negative magnetic permeability materials, and left-handed materials are comprehensively analysed. The existence regions, dispersion relations, and excitation of SPPs in different frequency regions are investigated in detail. For symmetric slabs, the numbers and the frequency positions of surface polariton branches are quite different. At the same time, the pairs of the p or s-polarized SPP branches occur in the same frequency range. For asymmetric slabs, the SPP branches in mid- and high-frequency ranges are greatly different. In addition, the slab thickness has a great effect on SPPs of asymmetric and symmetric slabs. The attenuated total reflection spectra for the cases of p and s polarizations in these slabs are also calculated.