Theory of surface polaritons in anisotropic dielectric media with application to surface magnetoplasmons in semiconductors

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Abstract
A theory is presented for surface polaritons associated with the planar surface of a semi-infinite anisotropic dielectric medium. Retardation is included. In general, two attenuating components with different attenuation constants must be superposed within the medium in order to satisfy the boundary conditions, and the macroscopic electric field vector does not lie in the sagittal plane. For special cases, however, only one attenuating component is required, and the electric vector does lie in the sagittal plane. The theory is applied to the specific case of surface magnetoplasmons in a semiconductor for magnetic fields either perpendicular or parallel to the surface. In the latter case, propagation directions parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field are considered. Possibilities for the experimental observation of the effects predicted are discussed.