Abstract: We study linear guided waves propagating in a slab waveguide made up of a negative-refractive-index material, the so-called left-handed waveguide. We reveal that the guided waves in left-handed waveguides possess a number of peculiar properties such as the absence of the fundamental modes, mode double degeneracy, and sign-varying energy flux. In particular, we predict the guided waves with a dipole-vortex structure of their Poynting vector.

Keywords: left-handed medium; surface-polaritons; perfect lens; permittivity; permeability; waves

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