Scattering of surface plasmon polaritons by impedance barriers:: Dependence on angle of incidence

This paper studies theoretically surface plasmon polariton scattering by one-dimensional defects of metal surface impedance at oblique incidence. Surface impedance boundary conditions are used to formulate an integral equation which can be solved both analytically and numerically to yield the transmission, reflection, and out-of-plane cross section as a function of angle of incidence and other parameters. Numerical calculations, as well as analytical expressions, obtained within the Born approximation are presented. Green's tensor approach is also applied so as to expand such analysis to region in which the surface impedance boundary conditions are not appropriate. We show that the angular dependencies for surface plasmon polariton scattering by impedance defects and by surface relief defects are essentially different. The angular dependency of surface plasmon polariton scattering by an impedance defect features an analog to Brewster's angle that is explained in terms of dipole polarization of the defect.