The surface plasmon polaritons in metal which is immersed in vegetable oil: The effect of metal thickness

Abstract

Abstract The liquid dielectrics have been widely used in transformer technology. However, there is very limited information in the usage of liquid dielectrics in optics, especially in generating surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) at the interface between conductor and dielectrics. In this study, we immersed conductor in liquid dielectrics and predicted the generation of SPP. Here, we used vegetable oils as liquid dielectric, since vegetable oil was relatively cheap and environment friendly. Using Maxwell equations and the continuity of the fields at the interface, the dispersion relation was derived. Then, dispersion relation was solved numerically using root finding technique. We found that the conductor’s thickness affected the frequency of surface plasmon polaritons. The thinner the conductor thickness, the higher the SPP frequency will be.