Surface waves at the interface between left-handed and birefringent materials

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the existence and properties of hybrid surface waves forming at interfaces between left-handed materials and dielectric birefringent media. The existence conditions of such waves are found to be highly relaxed in comparison to the original hybrid surface waves, discovered by Dyakonov, in configurations involving birefringent materials and right-handed media. Hybrid surface waves in left-handed materials feature remarkable properties: (i) a high degree of localization and (ii) coexistence of several guided solutions. The existence of several hybrid surface waves for the same parameter set is linked to the birefringent nature of the medium whereas the strong localization is related to the presence of the left-handed material. The hybrid surface modes appear for large areas in the parameter space.