| Abstract Scope |
Layered nanocomposites can support electromagnetic responses unavailable in their individual constituents. We present a structure–property framework for anisotropic multilayers in which plasmonic and magnetic Bloch polaritons hybridize and anticross. This interaction reorganizes the high-wave-vector dispersion, producing transitions among hyperbolic, bihyperbolic, tri-hyperbolic, and tetra-hyperbolic phases, even without intrinsic magnetoelectric coupling.
Propagation maps supplement conventional isofrequency surfaces by identifying phase propagation, energy-flow direction, attenuation or amplification, mode degeneracies, and photonic density-of-states singularities. These maps connect constituent material tensors, layer fractions, and coupling strength to the number, orientation, and character of available propagation channels.
The approach provides a physics-informed method for screening layered nanocomposite architectures and identifying optical phase transitions before detailed numerical optimization. Potential applications include directional emission, subwavelength imaging, enhanced light–matter interaction, sensing, and computational discovery of multifunctional photonic nanocomposites. |