Novel prospects in hyperbolic metamaterials: Dyakonov-like surface waves

In the late 1980s Dyakonov theoretically demonstrated the existence of lossless surface waves at the interface between two different transparent dielectrics, provided that one of them was anisotropic. These (also coined as) dyakonons have low-efficiency coupling rates in natural birefringent materials and all-dielectric metamaterials, thus reducing its use in photonic applications. We analyzed enhanced coupling of dyakonons taking place at the boundary of metamaterials exhibiting indefinite permittivity. Hybridization of surface waves enable tighter confinement near the interface in comparison with pure-TM surface-plasmon polaritons. Finally we predicted the existence of long-range dissipative dyakonons.