Periodicity effects on compound waves guided by a thin metal slab sandwiched between two periodically nonhomogeneous dielectric materials

Surface-plasmon-polariton waves can be compounded when a sufficiently thin metal layer is sandwiched between two half spaces filled with dissimilar periodically non-homogeneous dielectric materials. We solved the boundary-value problem for compound waves guided by a layer of a homogeneous and isotropic metal sandwiched between a structurally chiral material (SCM) and a periodically multi-layered isotropic dielectric (PMLID) material. We found that the periodicities of the PMLID material and the SCM are crucial to excite a multiplicity of compound guided waves arising from strong coupling between the two interfaces.