Surface-plasmon wave at the planar interface of a metal lm

and a structurally chiral medium

Akhlesh Lakhtakia
*
CATMAS Computational & Theoretical Materials Science Group, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics,
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802-6812, USA
Received 29 May 2007; received in revised form 10 July 2007; accepted 17 July 2007
Abstract
The solution of a boundary-value problem formulated for a modied Kretschmann conguration shows that a surface-
plasmon wave can be excited at the planar interface of a suciently thin metal lm and a nondissipative structurally chiral
medium, provided the exciting plane wave is p-polarized. An estimate of the wavenumber of the surface-plasmon wave also emerges
thereby.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Chiral liquid crystal; Kretschmann conguration; Metal optics; Plasmonics; Sculptured thin lm; Structural handedness; Surface-plasmon
1. Introduction
The propagation of electromagnetic waves localized to
a planar interface of a bulk metal and a bulk dielectric
material can be traced back to a hundred years ago [1].
Called surface-plasmon waves, they attenuate normally
away from the interface, and are excited only with eva-
nescent waves [2] that are usually generated by launching
nonevanescent waves toward dierent types of couplers
[3].
In the Kretschmann conguration, the bulk metal is in
the form of a thin lm of uniform thickness, bounded on
one side by a high-refractive-index dielectric material and
on the other side by a low-refractive-index dielectric
material. A plane wave is launched in the optically den-
ser dielectric material towards the metal lm, in order to
excite a surface-plasmon wave at the interface of the
metal with the optically rarer dielectric material [4].
The plane wave must be p-polarized. The telltale sign
is a sharp peak in absorbance (i.e., a sharp trough in
reectance without a compensatory peak in transmit-
tance) as the angle of incidence (with respect to the
thickness direction) of the launched plane wave is chan-
ged [5]. Because the angle of incidence for exciting the
surface-plasmon wave is a delicate function of the consti-
tutive properties of all three materials, surface-plasmon
waves in the visible and the near-infrared regimes are
exploited for sensing, imaging, and other applications
[69].
Generally, the optically rarer medium is homogeneous,
normal to its planar interface with the metal lm at least
within the range of the surface-plasmon eld. In this
communication, this medium is taken to be continuously
nonhomogeneous in the thickness direction. Specically,
the optically rarer medium is structurally chiral, with
the axis of helicoidal nonhomogeneity oriented parallel
0030-4018/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2007.07.026
*
Tel.: +1 814 863 4319; fax: +1 814 863 7967.
E-mail address: AXL4@psu.edu
www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom
Optics Communications 279 (2007) 291297
to the thickness direction.
1
To my knowledge, the solu-
tion of the associated boundary-value problem has never
been reported before, and its application should draw
both chiral liquid crystals and chiral sculptured thin lms
into the plasmonics arena.
The plan of this communication is as follows: Section 2
contains a description of a modied Kretschmann congu-
ration, with the optically rarer medium replaced by a struc-
turally chiral medium (SCM) slab of sucient thickness.
The combination of the metal lm and the SCM slab is
sandwiched between two half-spaces occupied by the same
isotropic dielectric material that is optically denser than the
chosen SCM. A brief description of the electromagnetic
boundary-value problem is also presented. Section 3 con-
tains numerical results to show that a surface-plasmon
wave can be excited at the planar interface of a metal lm
and a structurally chiral medium, provided the incident
plane wave is p-polarized.
In the following sections, an exp(ixt) time-dependence
is implicit, with x denoting the angular frequency. The
free-space wavenumber, the free-space wavelength, and
the intrinsic impedance of free space are denoted by
k
0
x

0
l
0
p
, k
0
= 2p/k
0
, and g
0

l
0
=
0
_
, respectively,
with l
0
and
0
being the permeability and permittivity of
free space. Vectors are in boldface, dyadics underlined
twice; column vectors are in boldface and enclosed within
square brackets, while matrixes are underlined twice and
similarly bracketed. Cartesian unit vectors are identied
as ^u
x
, ^u
y
and ^u
z
.
2. Theory
In conformance with the Kretschmann conguration for
launching surface-plasmon waves, the half-space z 6 0 is
occupied by a homogeneous, isotropic, dielectric material
described by the relative permittivity scalar

. Dissipation
in this material is considered to be negligible and its refrac-
tive index n

p
is real-valued and positive. The laminar
region 0 6 z 6 L
met
is occupied by a metal with relative
permittivity scalar
met
. A structurally chiral material occu-
pies the region L
met
6 z 6 L
met
+ L
scm
, the dielectric prop-
erties of this material being described in the following
subsection. Finally, without signicant loss of generality
in the present context, the half-space z PL
met
+ L
scm
is
taken to be occupied by the same material as lls the
half-space z 6 0. All constitutive properties generally
depend on the angular frequency x.
A plane wave, propagating in the half-space z 6 0 at an
angle h 2 [0, p/2) to the z axis and at an angle w 2 [0, 2p) to
the x axis in the xy plane, is incident on the metal-coated
SCM slab. The electromagnetic eld phasors associated
with the incident plane wave are represented as
E
inc
r a
s
s a
p
p

e
ijx cos wy sin w
e
ik
0
n

z cos h
H
inc
r
n

g
0
a
s
p

a
p
se
ijx cos wy sin w
e
ik
0
n

z cos h
_
; z 6 0:
1
The amplitudes of the s- and the p-polarized components of
the incident plane wave, denoted by a
s
and a
p
, respectively,
are assumed given, whereas
j k
0
n

sin h
s ^u
x
sin w ^u
y
cos w
p

^u
x
cos w ^u
y
sin w
_ _
cos h ^u
z
sin h
_

_
: 2
The reected electromagnetic eld phasors are expressed
as
E
ref
r r
s
s r
p
p

e
ijx cos wy sin w
e
ik
0
n

z cos h
H
ref
r
n

g
0
r
s
p

r
p
se
ijx cos wy sin w
e
ik
0
n

z cos h
_
; z 6 0;
3
and the transmitted electromagnetic eld phasors as
E
tr
r t
s
s t
p
p

e
ijxcoswy sinw
e
ik
0
n

zL
R
cosh
H
tr
r
n

g
0
t
s
p

t
p
se
ijxcos wy sinw
e
ik
0
n

zL
R
cosh
_
; z PL
R
;
4
where L
R
= L
met
+ L
scm
. The reection amplitudes r
s
and r
p
,
as well as the transmission amplitudes t
s
and t
p
, have to be
determined by the solution of a boundary-value problem.
2.1. Constitutive relations of the SCM
The frequency-domain electromagnetic constitutive rela-
tions of the SCM slab can be written as [17]
Dr
0

scm
z Er
Br l
0
Hr
_
; L
met
6 z 6 L
R
: 5
The frequency-dependent relative permittivity dyadic

scm
z is factorable as
1
An object is said to be chiral if it cannot be made to coincide with its
mirror-image by translations and/or rotations. There are two types of
chiral mediums: (i) microscopically or molecularly chiral mediums, and (ii)
structurally chiral mediums. The rst type of mediums either have chiral
molecules or are composite materials made by embedding electrically
small helixes (and similar inclusions of chiral shapes) in a host medium.
Materials comprising chiral molecules have been known for about two
hundred years, as a perusal of an anthology of milestone papers [10] will
show to the interested reader. These materials are generally isotropic [11].
Composite materials comprising electrically small chiral inclusions were
rst reported in 1898 [12], and can be either isotropic [13,14] or anisotropic
[15]. The rst type of chiral mediums can be considered as either
homogeneous or nonhomogeneous continuums. In contrast, the second
type of chiral mediums can only be nonhomogeneous and anisotropic
continuums at the length-scales of interest, their constitutive parameters
varying periodically in a chiral manner about a xed axis. Take away the
nonhomogeneity of a SCM, and its (macroscopic) chirality will also
vanish. This communication is concerned about the second type of chiral
mediums, which are exempled by chiral liquid crystals [16, Chap. 4] and
chiral sculptured thin lms [17, Chap. 9]. Parenthetically, a third type of
chiral medium has recently entered scientic literature [18,19]. Such a
material is made by depositing spirals (and similar objects) on some at
surface. Spirals, being essentially two-dimensional objects, cannot be
chiral, and planar chirality [20] is an infelicitous term that ought to be
replaced by a meaningful term.
292 A. Lakhtakia / Optics Communications 279 (2007) 291297

scm
z S

z
z L
met
S

y
v

ref
scm
S

T
y
v S

T
z
z L
met
;
L
met
6 z 6 L
R
;
where the reference relative permittivity dyadic

ref
scm

a
^u
z
^u
z

b
^u
x
^u
x

c
^u
y
^u
y
: 6
The dyadic function
S

z
z ^u
x
^u
x
^u
y
^u
y
cos
pz
X
_ _
h^u
y
^u
x
^u
x
^u
y
sin
pz
X
_ _
^u
z
^u
z
;
7
contains 2X as the structural period and h = 1 as the
structural-handedness parameter; thus, the SCM is helicoi-
dally nonhomogeneous along the z axis. The tilt dyadic
S

y
v ^u
x
^u
x
^u
z
^u
z
cos v ^u
z
^u
x
^u
x
^u
z
sin v ^u
y
^u
y
8
involves the angle v 2 [0, p/2]. The superscript
T
denotes the
transpose.
2.2. Boundary-value problem
The procedure to determine the amplitudes r
s
, r
p
, t
s
, and
t
p
in terms of a
s
and a
p
is standard [17, Chap. 10], as indeed
is true of problems involving other types of multilayered
structures [21,22]. Interested readers are referred also to
the detailed procedure provided earlier in this journal
[23]. It suces to state here that the following set of four
algebraic equations emerges (in matrix notation):
t
s
t
p
0
0
_

_
_

_
K

_ _
1
B

scm
_ _
M

0
scm
_ _
exp i P

met
_ _
L
met
_ _
K

_ _

a
s
a
p
r
s
r
p
_

_
_

_
:
9
The procedure to compute the 4 4 matrix M

0
scm
_ _
is far
too cumbersome for reproduction here, the interested read-
er being referred to [17, Sec. 9.2.2]. The 4 4 matrix K

_ _
depends on the refractive index n

as well as the angles h

and w as follows:
The remaining two matrixes appearing in (9) are
and
The solution of (9) yields the reection and transmission
coecients that appear as the elements of the 2 2 ma-
trixes in the following relations:
r
s
r
p
_ _

r
ss
r
sp
r
ps
r
pp
_ _
a
s
a
p
_ _
;
t
s
t
p
_ _

t
ss
t
sp
t
ps
t
pp
_ _
a
s
a
p
_ _
: 13
Co-polarized coecients have both subscripts identical,
but cross-polarized coecients do not. The square of the
magnitude of a reection or transmission coecient is the
corresponding reectance or transmittance; thus,
R
sp
= jr
sp
j
2
is the reectance corresponding to the reection
coecient r
sp
, and so on. The principle of conservation of
energy mandates the constraints R
ss
+ R
ps
+ T
ss
+ T
ps
6 1
and R
pp
+ R
sp
+ T
pp
+ T
sp
6 1, the inequalities turning to
equalities only in the absence of dissipation in the region
0 < z < L
R
.
K

_ _

sin w cos wcos h sin w cos wcos h
cos w sin wcos h cos w sin wcos h

g
0
_ _
cos wcos h
n

g
0
_ _
sin w
n

g
0
_ _
cos wcos h
n

g
0
_ _
sin w

g
0
_ _
sin wcos h
n

g
0
_ _
cos w
n

g
0
_ _
sin wcos h
n

g
0
_ _
cos w
_

_
_

_
: 10
B

scm
_ _

cospL
scm
=X h sinpL
scm
=X 0 0
h sinpL
scm
=X cospL
scm
=X 0 0
0 0 cospL
scm
=X h sinpL
scm
=X
0 0 h sinpL
scm
=X cospL
scm
=X
_

_
_

_
11
P

met
_ _

0 0 0 xl
0
0 0 xl
0
0
0 x
0

met
0 0
x
0

met
0 0 0
_

_
_

j
2
x
0

met
0 0 cos wsinw cos
2
w
0 0 sin
2
w cos wsinw
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
_

_
_

j
2
xl
0
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
cos wsinw cos
2
w 0 0
sin
2
w cos wsinw 0 0
_

_
_

_
:
12
A. Lakhtakia / Optics Communications 279 (2007) 291297 293
3. Numerical results and discussion
All eight reectances and transmittances at the free-
space wavelength k
0
= 633 nm were computed as func-
tions of the angles h and w. The SCM was chosen to pos-
sess the following parameters:
a
= 2.7,
b
= 3.0,
c
= 2.72,
v = 30, X = 200 nm, and h = 1. These representative
values have often been used for theoretical works on chi-
ral sculptured thin lms. The relative permittivity of the
ambient medium was chosen to be

= 5, and that of
the metal (typ. aluminum) as
met
= 56 + i21. For the
chosen constitutive parameters, the constraints
R
ss
+ R
ps
+ T
ss
+ T
ps
= 1 and R
pp
+ R
sp
+ T
pp
+ T
sp
= 1
hold in the absence of the metal lm, which was satised
to within 0.01% error for all results provided here.
Also, when the SCM was metamorphosed into an isotro-
pic and homogeneous material (by setting
a
=
b
=
c
),
the computer program yielded the same results as pub-
lished by Mansuripur and Li [25].
Fig. 1 shows the variations of the reectances (R
pp
and
R
sp
), transmittances (T
pp
and T
sp
), and the absorbance
A
p
1 R
pp
R
sp
T
pp
T
sp
14
with h, when w = 0 and the incident plane wave is p-polar-
ized. The SCM is 1-period thick (i.e., L
scm
= 2X), whereas
the thickness of the metal lm varies from 0 to 20 nm in
steps of 5 nm. A rapid increase in the absorbance A
p
indi-
cates the excitation of a surface-plasmon wave [25]. The
values of h for maximum A
p
are identied for dierent
non-zero values of L
met
in Fig. 1. For instance, the absor-
bance equals 0.93 at h = 52.33, when L
met
= 10 nm. As
L
met
increases, the maximum-absorbance value of h
decreases slightly, whereas the maximum absorbance de-
creases as well after peaking.
The calculations for Fig. 1 were repeated for higher val-
ues of L
scm
/X. As the thickness of the SCM slab was
increased, the maximum-A
p
value of h for a specic value
of L
met
began to converge. This is exemplied by the plots
of A
p
vs. h in Fig. 2 for L
scm
/X = 4 and Fig. 3 for L
scm
/
X = 10. Thus, the maximum value of A
p
is 0.975 at
h = 51.87 in Fig. 2b and also at h = 51.81 in Fig. 3b, both
for L
met
= 10 nm.
A comparison of the three gures indicates that the 5-
period-thick SCM slab is suciently thick as to be equiva-
lent to a SCM half-space, which would be required in the
usual theoretical treatment of the (unmodied) Kretsch-
mann conguration [2]. Parenthetically, the planewave
response of a SCM half-space cannot be obtained unless
the wavevector of the incident plane wave is aligned paral-
lel to the z axis [24], because a suciently general eigenmo-
dal decomposition of the electromagnetic elds is
unavailable [17, Chap. 9].
When
a
=
b
=
c
= 2.81 (the average of the three eigen-
values of

ref
scm
) were set, along with L
scm
= 10X, the maxi-
mum value of A
p
changed from 0.9623 at h = 50.66 in
Fig. 3d to 0.9639 at h = 51.00. This could indicate that
the surface-plasmon wavenumber j is not very sensitive
to the structural chirality of the SCM; however, the wave-
elds in the SCM slab must display a structurally chiral
nature.
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
T
sp
R
sp
A
p
T
pp
R
pp
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
(a) L = 0 nm
met
(b) L = 5 nm
met
(c) L = 10 nm
met
(d) L = 15 nm
met
(e) L = 20 nm
met
Angle of incidence (deg)
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
,

T
r
a
n
s
m
i
t
t
a
n
c
e
,

o
r

A
b
s
o
r
b
a
n
c
e
55.98 deg
52.33 deg
51.13 deg
50.75 deg
Fig. 1. Reectances (R
pp
and R
sp
), transmittances (T
pp
and T
sp
), and the
absorbance as functions of h when w = 0, k
0
= 633 nm, and the incident
plane wave is p-polarized. The SCM is described by the following
parameters:
a
= 2.7,
b
= 3.0,
c
= 2.72, v = 30, X = 200 nm, h = 1,
and L
scm
= 2X. The relative permittivity of the metal is
met
= 56 + i21,
and that of the ambient medium is

= 5. (a) L
met
= 0, (b) L
met
= 5 nm, (c)
L
met
= 10 nm, (d) L
met
= 15 nm, and (e) L
met
= 20 nm. The values of h for
maximumA
p
are identied for dierent non-zero values of L
met
in the plots.
294 A. Lakhtakia / Optics Communications 279 (2007) 291297
Were the SCM to be replaced by an isotropic dielectric
material of relative permittivity
iso
and the metal lm were
absent, total internal reection would occur for
h Psin
1

iso
=

_
. Then, sin
1

iso
=

_
is the critical angle
and k
0

iso
p
is an estimate of the wavenumber of the sur-
face-plasmon wave [25]. But a simple formulation of a
critical angle is not possible with the SCM. A useful esti-
mate can, however, be made, by setting
iso
= max
(
a
,
b
,
c
), whereby the critical angle equals
sin
1

c
=

_
50:77

for the chosen parameters. Fig. 2b

e and Fig. 3be indicate that the surface-plasmon wave is
indeed excited in the neighborhood of this estimate of this
critical angle, which is also ratied by the plots for
L
met
= 0 in Fig. 2a and Fig. 3a. Although further research
appears necessary when
a
,
b
, and
c
are all signicantly
dierent from each other, it is clear that a surface-plasmon
0
0
(a) L = 0 nm
met
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
,

T
r
a
n
s
m
i
t
t
a
n
c
e
,

o
r

A
b
s
o
r
b
a
n
c
e
0
0
0
0
0
0
(b) L = 5 nm
met
(c) L = 10 nm
met
(e) L = 15 nm
met
(d) L = 20 nm
met
Angle of incidence (deg)
51.81 deg
50.66 deg
50.30 deg
T
sp
R
sp
A
p
T
pp
R
pp
55.76 deg
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0
0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Fig. 3. Same as Fig. 1, except that L
scm
= 10X.
0
0
(a) L = 0 nm
met
Angle of incidence (deg)
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
,

T
r
a
n
s
m
i
t
t
a
n
c
e
,

o
r

A
b
s
o
r
b
a
n
c
e
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
(b) L = 5 nm
met
(c) L = 10 nm
met
(d) L = 15 nm
met
(e) L = 20 nm
met
51.87 deg
50.68 deg
50.33 deg
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
T
sp
R
sp
A
p
T
pp
R
pp
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
55.76 deg
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Fig. 2. Same as Fig. 1, except that L
scm
= 4X.
A. Lakhtakia / Optics Communications 279 (2007) 291297 295
wave can be excited in the present conguration, provided
that

exceeds the maximum eigenvalue of

ref
scm
.
The surface-plasmon wavenumber j is also sensitive to
the choice of the metal, provided of course that the real
part of
met
is negative. Calculations for Fig. 3d were
repeated with one-half of the relative permittivity of alumi-
num. The maximum value of A
p
changed from 0.9623 at
h = 50.66 in Fig. 3d to 0.9192 at h = 53.90, as could be
expected from the standard treatment for the planar inter-
face of a metal and a homogeneous, isotropic dielectric
material [25].
In order to conrm the excitation of a surface-plasmon
wave at the interface of the metal and the SCM, the time-
averaged Poynting vector P(z) = (1/2)Re[E(z) H
*
(z)] was
plotted against z 2 (0, L
met
) for all calculations reported in
the previous three gures. Shown in Fig. 4 are the cartesian
components of P(z) vs. z in the metal lm, when h = 51.81,
L
met
= 10 nm, L
scm
= 10X, and all other parameters are the
same as for Fig. 3. The magnitude of P
z
decreases and that
of P
x
increases, both monotonically, as one traverses the
metal lm from the interface with the medium of incidence
(z = 0) to the interface with the SCM (z = L
met
). Clearly
thus, the presence of the surface-plasmon wave localized
to the interface z = L
met
is conrmed.
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
z/L
met
z
P
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
-0.6
-0.5
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
-0.0025
0
0.0025
0.005
0.0075
0.01
0.0125
z/L
met
z/L
met
x
P
y
P
Fig. 4. Cartesian components of the time-averaged Poynting vector P(z)
in the metal lm vs. z 2 (0, L
met
) when a surface-plasmon wave has been
excited. The conditions are the same as for Fig. 3c, except that h = 1. For
h = 1, the y-directed component of P(z) is dierent in sign but not in
magnitude.
0
0
0
0
0
0
(a) L = 0 nm
met
(b) L = 5 nm
met
(c) L = 10 nm
met
(d) L = 15 nm
met
(e) L = 20 nm
met
Angle of incidence (deg)
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
,

T
r
a
n
s
m
i
t
t
a
n
c
e
,

o
r

A
b
s
o
r
b
a
n
c
e
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
T
ps
R
ps
A
s
T
ss
R
ss
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0
0
0
0
Fig. 5. Reectances (R
ss
and R
ps
), transmittances (T
ss
and T
ps
), and the
absorbance as functions of h when w = 0, k
0
= 633 nm, and the incident
plane wave is s-polarized. The SCM is described by the following
parameters:
a
= 2.7,
b
= 3.0,
c
= 2.72, v = 30, X = 200 nm, h = 1,
and L
scm
= 2X. The relative permittivity of the metal is
met
= 56 + i21,
and that of the ambient medium is

= 5. (a) L
met
= 0, (b) L
met
= 5 nm,
(c) L
met
= 10 nm, (d) L
met
= 15 nm, and (e) L
met
= 20 nm.
296 A. Lakhtakia / Optics Communications 279 (2007) 291297
Fig. 4 also shows the eects of the anisotropy and the
structural handedness of the SCM. These eects are mani-
fested in the y-directed component of P(z) in the metal lm.
Were the SCM to be replaced by an isotropic material, this
component of P(z) would be identically zero for all z. Also,
the sign of this component depends on whether h = 1 or
h = 1.
Although all numerical results presented were calculated
for w = 0, calculations were made for other values of w as
well. No signicant eect of w on the maximum-A
p
value of
h was detected, possibly because
a
and
c
were taken to be
quite close to each other.
Fig. 5 shows the variations of the relevant reectances
and transmittances, and of the absorbance
A
s
1 R
ss
R
ps
T
ss
T
ps
; 15
with h for the same parameters as for Fig. 1, except that the
incident plane wave is s-polarized. Evidence of the excita-
tion of a surface-plasmon wave is absent from this gure,
just as it would be if the SCM slab were to be replaced
by a slab made of a homogeneous, isotropic dielectric
material [25]. Calculations for higher values of the ratio
L
scm
/X also did not reveal the existence of a surface-plas-
mon wave for s-polarized incidence.
To conclude, the solution of a boundary-value problem
formulated for a modied Kretschmann conguration
shows that a surface-plasmon wave can be excited at the
planar interface of a suciently thin metal lm and a non-
dissipative structurally chiral medium, provided that (i) the
incident plane wave is p-polarized, and (ii) the wavenumber
(i.e., j) of the surface-plasmon wave roughly equals
k
0

max
a
;
b
;
c

_
. An estimate of the wavenumber of the
surface-plasmon wave may have to be obtained graphically
(by setting L
met
= 0), if
a,b,c
are very dierent from each
other. Future work will be focused on exploring the depen-
dence of the surface-plasmon wave on the morphology of
the SCM slab [26], as well as on applications for sensing
uids absorbed in porous SCM slabs [27].
Acknowledgement
This work was supported in part by the Charles Godfrey
Binder Endowment.
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