THz surface plasmon modes on planar Goubau lines.

The dispersion relation and confinement of terahertz surface plasmon modes propagating along planar Goubau lines are studied using guided-wave time domain spectroscopy. We demonstrate the radial nature of the surface plasmon mode known as the Goubau mode and the transverse confinement of the electric field over a few tenths of microns (~l/10). We experimentally and computationally observed a transition of the shape of the THz pulses from unipolar to bipolar as the propagation distance increases, indicating that the Goubau line acts as a high-pass filter. The deviation of the dispersion relation curve from a linear law above 600 GHz is discussed.