Excitation of the Uller-Zenneck electromagnetic surface waves in the prism-coupled configuration

TL;DR

This paper proposes and analyzes a prism-coupled configuration to excite Uller-Zenneck surface electromagnetic waves at dielectric interfaces, revealing conditions for their excitation and potential applications in electromagnetic surface wave technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel prism-coupled method to excite Uller-Zenneck waves at dielectric interfaces, expanding understanding of their excitation conditions and waveguide mode transitions.

Findings

Uller-Zenneck waves can be excited at the same incident angle regardless of slab thickness.

Waveguide modes are excited only when the lossy dielectric slab is sufficiently thick.

The proposed configuration enables new applications for electromagnetic surface waves.

Abstract

A configuration to excite the Uller-Zenneck surface electromagnetic waves at the planar interfaces of homogeneous and isotropic dielectric materials is proposed and theoretically analyzed. The Uller-Zenneck waves are surface waves that can exist at the planar interface of two dissimilar dielectric materials of which at least one is a lossy dielectric material. In this work, a slab of a lossy dielectric material was taken with lossless dielectric materials on both sides. A canonical boundary-value problem was set up and solved to find the possible Uller-Zenneck waves and waveguide modes. The Uller-Zenneck waves guided by the slab of the lossy dielectric material were found to be either symmetric or anti-symmetric that transmuted into waveguide modes when the thickness of that slab was increased. A prism-coupled configuration was then successfully devised to excite the Uller-Zenneck waves. The results showed that the Uller-Zenneck waves are excited at the same angle of incidence for any thickness of the slab of the lossy dielectric material, whereas the waveguide modes can be excited when the slab is sufficiently thick. The excitation of Uller-Zenneck waves at the planar interfaces with homogeneous and all-dielectric materials can usher new avenues for the applications for electromagnetic surface waves.