Exploring the route from leaky Berreman modes to bound states in continuum

TL;DR

This paper investigates the coupling of Berreman modes in polar dielectric films with metallic layers, revealing conditions for bound states in continuum (BIC) formation due to mode interactions and Fabry-Perot mechanisms.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of BIC in Berreman mode coupling through dielectric spacers, highlighting the role of mode symmetry and layer thickness in minimizing radiative losses.

Findings

BIC occurs at specific dispersion branch crossings.

Mode splitting depends on the thickness of the coupling layers.

Lower loss BIC is associated with symmetric modes.

Abstract

We study coupling of leaky Berreman modes in polar dielectric films (SiO2) through a thin metallic layer (gold) and show the familiar signatures of normal mode splitting. Due to very large negative real part of the dielectric function of gold, the splitting shows up only for extremely thin coupling layers. In contrast, coupling of Berreman modes through a dielectric spacer layer reveals novel possibilities of having bound states in continuum, albeit in the limit of vanishing losses. It is shown that the corresponding dispersion branches of the symmetric and antisymmetric modes can cross. BIC is shown to occur on one of these branches which is characterized by lower loss. In fact the BIC corresponds to the point where the radiative losses are minimized. For thicker layers (both spacer and the polar dielectric) BIC is shown to occur on the higher order dispersion branches. The origin of BIC is traced to the Fabry-Perot type mechanism due to the excitation of the leaky guided modes in the central layer.