Numerical studies of surface and bulk modes in attenuated total reflection spectra

The dispersion relations of normal modes in the layered constructions are studied. In the frequency region with negative permittivity, we investigate the normal modes near the air–metal and the air–matematerial interfaces and compare them. An extra bulk mode appearing in a pass band of two media is found near the air–matematerial interface, which is different from the air--metal case. Moreover, the bulk mode will be further proved by the attenuated total reflection (ATR) technique, in which the coupling between the incident electromagnetic waves and the normal modes is studied. For p-polarized incident waves, the ATR spectra based on the Otto and the Kretschmann configurations are obtained numerically, where the dips present the excitations of the surface and bulk modes. Furthermore, we also discuss the influences of the middle layer thickness, the incident angle and the damping term on the reflection in detail. It is found that the coupling frequencies and the maximum strength are strongly dependent on the above media parameters.