Surface waves extraction and their effect on effective material parameters of metamaterials

We investigate the influence of the finite width of the metamaterial slabs. The surface waves excited in finite-width slabs are numerically extracted by the rigorous coupled-wave analysis method. The magnitudes and decay rates of surface waves are analyzed for different materials and geometries. A general homogenization method based on the analysis of appropriately defined macroscopic fields in metamaterial cells is proposed to retrieve the effective material parameters as functions of position. The effects of surface waves on effective material parameters are studied.