Leaky and bound modes in terahertz metasurfaces made of transmission-line metamaterials

Prism coupling and reflection spectroscopy are used to characterize bound modes within composite right/left handed terahertz metamaterial waveguides. The cavity antenna model is used to understand the polarization dependence of the radiative coupling to TM00 and TM01 waveguide modes. Furthermore, the cavity model along with transmission-line theory is used to derive a surface impedance model for a waveguide array metasurface. Qualitative agreement with the experiment is observed, including a mode splitting for p-polarized surface waves at the light line and the existence of s-polarized magnetic spoof surface plasmons. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4776761]