Surface plasmons in coaxial metamaterial cables
Thanks to Victor Veselago for his hypothesis of negative index of refraction, metamaterials -- engineered composites -- can be designed to have properties difficult or impossible to find in nature: they can have both electrical permitivity ($ε$) and magnetic permeability ($μ$) simultaneously negative. The metamaterials -- henceforth negative-index materials (NIMs) -- owe their properties to subwavelength structure rather than to their chemical composition. The tailored electromagnetic response of the NIMs has had a dramatic impact on the classical optics: they are becoming known to have changed many basic notions related with the electromagnetism. The present article is focused on gathering and reviewing the fundamental characteristics of plasmon propagation in the coaxial cables fabricated of the right-handed medium (RHM) [with $ε>0$, $μ>0$] and the left-handed medium (LHM) [with $ε<0$, $μ<0$] in alternate shells starting from the innermost cable. Such structures as conceived here may pave the way to some interesting effects in relation to, e.g., the optical science exploiting the cylindrical symmetry of the coaxial waveguides that make it possible to perform all major functions of an optical fiber communication system in which the light is born, manipulated, and transmitted without ever leaving the fiber environment, with precise control over the polarization rotation and pulse broadening. The review also covers briefly the nomenclature, classification, potential applications, and the limitations (related, e.g., to the inherent losses) of the NIMs and their impact on the classical electrodynamics, in general, and in designing the cloaking devices, in particular. Recent surge in efforts on invisibility and the cloaking devices seems to have spoiled the researchers worldwide: