SUPERLATTICE PLASMON POLARITONS

In recent years there has been considerable interest in the properties of plasmon-polaritons in low-dimensional solid structures, where effects due to surfaces and interfaces between different materials become important. We discuss advances in this field, dealing in particular with multilayer systems fabricated from metals and/or semiconductors. After reviewing previous work on thin films, we describe results obtained using transfer-matrix methods for the bulk and surface plasmon-polaritons in two-component (or binary) superlattices formed from a periodic array of alternating layers of two different materials. Generalizations to more complex structures are then given, including n-i-p-i semiconductor superlattices, Fibonacci-like superlattices, and superlattices in which some of the layers are piezoelectric materials. Magnetic-field effects are also discussed in terms of magnetoplasmon-polaritons in superlattices. A discussion is given of some of the spectroscopic techniques applicable to plasmon-polaritons in multilayer systems, where we emphasize Raman scattering and far-infrared attenuated total reflection. Finally, some nonlinear effects involving surface plasmon-polaritons are described.