Theory of the effect of a dc current on surface polaritons in n-type silicon

A theoretical investigation has been made of the effect of a drift current on surface polaritons in n-type silicon. The current direction is taken to be the same as the propagation direction of the surface polaritons. Retardation is included, but damping is neglected. In obtaining the dispersion relation, the specular-reflection/mirror-image technique of Kliewer and Fuchs is used to handle the boundary conditions. The results indicate that an interaction takes place between the current and polaritons which gives rise to polariton instabilities for certain frequency ranges. These instabilities are a consequence of the presence of the surface.