Existence and properties of microwave surface plasmons at the interface between a right-handed and a left-handed media

Surface plasmons, (SPs) are interface waves very similar to Zenneck waves but existing only at optical frequencies where metals exhibit a negative permittivity. The availability of novel structured metamaterials with tailorable positive/negative constitutive parameters allows the generation of SPs in the microwave range, which may lead to novel components and antennas applications. This paper describes SPs existing at the interface between right-handed (RH) and left-handed (LH) materials. The dispersion relation is established, the properties of these SPs are discussed, a transmission line (TL) LC implementation of the RH/LH interface is proposed, and the phenomena are demonstrated by full-wave simulation in an effective medium approach.