Tetra-hyperbolic and tri-hyperbolic optical phases in anisotropic metamaterials without magnetoelectric coupling due to hybridization of plasmonic and magnetic Bloch high-k polaritons

TL;DR

This paper uncovers the physics behind hyperbolic phases in anisotropic metamaterials, revealing hybridization effects of high-k polaritons, and introduces new theoretical techniques for analyzing bianisotropic optical media.

Contribution

It introduces novel theoretical methods and formalisms for studying high-k polaritons and hyperbolic phases in anisotropic and bianisotropic metamaterials without magnetoelectric coupling.

Findings

Deepened understanding of high-k polaritons and iso-frequency surface topology.

Identified anti-crossing splitting due to hybridization of plasmonic and magnetic Bloch polaritons.

Developed new theoretical tools for analyzing anisotropic bianisotropic media.

Abstract

In this paper we reveal the physics behind the formation of tri- and tetra-hyperbolic phases in anisotropic metamaterials without magnetoelectric coupling and describe the anti-crossing splitting phenomenon in the hyperbolic dispersion which arises due to the hybridization of the plasmonic and magnetic Bloch high-k polaritons. This considerably deepens the understanding of the high-k polaritons and the topology of the optical iso-frequency surfaces in k-space and will find applications in optical nano-resolution imaging and emission rate and directivity control. To accomplish this, we develop a range of new techniques of theoretical optics for bianisotropic materials, including the quadratic index of refraction operator method, suitable to study the high-k polaritons with finite indices of refraction and the explicit expression for the characteristic matrix in generic bianisotropic media. We introduce the spatial stratification approach for the electric and magnetic responses of anisotropic homogeneous media to analyze the underlying Bloch waves. We believe that the formalisms developed here can be useful for the researchers in the field of theoretical optics of anisotropic and bianisotropic media in the future.