Surface polaritons of a metal-insulator-metal curved slab

•s-polarized surface mode can propagate in a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) curved slab.•s- and p-polarized surface modes in MIM curved slab possess a multiplicity of solutions.•s- and p-polarized surface modes in MIM curved slab have the nature of waveguide modes.

The properties of s- and p-polarized surface polariton modes propagating circumferentially around a portion of a cylindrical metal-insulator-metal structure are studied, theoretically. By using the Maxwell equations in conjunction with the Drude model for the dielectric function of the metals and applying the appropriate boundary conditions, the dispersion relations of surface waves for two types of modes, are derived and numerically solved. The effects of the slab curvature and insulator thickness on the propagation of electromagnetic modes are investigated. The differences of the s- and p-polarized surface modes are also shown.