Competing coupled gaps and slabs for plasmonic metamaterial analysis.

Layered medium comprised of metal-dielectrics constituents is of much interest in the field of metamaterials. Here we introduce a novel analysis approach based on competing coupled structures of plasmonic gaps (MIM) and slabs (IMI) for the detailed comprehension of the band structure of periodic metal-dielectric stacks. This approach enables the rigorous identification of many interesting features including the intersections between plasmonic bands, flat or negative band formation, and the field symmetry of the propagating modes. Furthermore - the "gap-slab competition" concept allows us to develop design tools for incorporating desired dispersion properties of both gap and slab modes into the stack's band structure, as well as effects of finite stack termination.