Transmitted and Reflected Graphene Surface Waves Due to Substrate Discontinuities

The transmission and reflection coefficients of graphene surface waves, owing to the discontinuities of its substrate, are systematically studied and numerically computed in this paper. In essence, the propagation properties of these graphene-supported waves are theoretically extracted, revealing their strong dependence on the substrate material. The latter leads to the disruption of a propagating surface wave to a reflected and a transmitted one, because of any potential discontinuity. Finally, the coefficients and the propagation angles of these waves are accurately evaluated by means of a robust finite-difference time-domain algorithm that treats graphene as a surface boundary condition.