Tuning the wavelength of spoof plasmons by adjusting the impedance contrast in an array of penetrable inclusions

Abstract

While spoof plasmons have been proposed in periodic arrays of sound-hard inclusions, we show that they also exist when inclusions are penetrable. Moreover, we show that their wavelength can be tuned by the impedance mismatch between the inclusion material and the surrounding medium, beyond the usual effect of filling fraction in the array. It is demonstrated that sound-soft materials increase the efficiency in the generation of sub-wavelength plasmons, with much lower wavelengths than sound-hard materials and than a homogeneous slab. An application to the generation of acoustic spoof plasmons by an ultra compact array of air/polydimethylsiloxane inclusions in water is proposed with plasmon wavelength tunable up to deep sub-wavelength scales.