The dispersion relations for surface plasmon polaritons propagating in the Voigt geometry in a metal-insulator-metal waveguide with a magneto-optically active dielectric medium are derived. The symmetry between the upper and lower interfaces is broken by the introduction of the magnetic field; the balance between the field distributions on the two interfaces can be controlled by the applied field. This control is illustrated by finite-element method numerical simulations of the field distributions around a point dipole placed in the center of the short waveguide; it is shown that both the total emission of radiation from the cavity and the distribution of the far-field radiation can be strongly modified by tuning the magnetization of the waveguide. This raises the possibility of using magnetic fields to control light propagation in nanostructures.

• Received 4 February 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.88.125136