Dyakonov-like surface waves in the THz regime

•We analyze Dyakonov surface waves propagating obliquely at the interface between an insulator and a THz metamaterial, the latter consisting of a 1D graphene-dielectric superlattice.•By simply varing the frequency, the Fermi energy, and the temperature, we found tunable conditions for the existence of such surface waves.

Here we examine Dyakonov-like surface waves (DSWs) in the THz regime traveling along the plane interface between a non-conducting isotropic medium and a low-loss graphene-based uniaxial metamaterial with the optic axis (OA) oriented along with the interface. New insights concerning the propagation characteristics of DSWs are given by analyzing the dispersion relation in such configuration, that is evaluated using the effective medium theory. The range of angles with respect to the OA which is determined for the in-plane wave vector can be conveniently tuned with extremely flexibility in opposition with DSWs excited in natural anisotropic media. The properties discussed here are of relevance in applications reaching ultra-compact electromagnetic waveguides and bio- and chemo-sensing.