Excitation of Surface Electromagnetic Waves in Attenuated Total-Reflection Prism Configurations

We have carried out theoretical and experimental studies of the excitation of surface electromagnetic waves by volume electromagnetic radiation of finite beam width. The excited leaky surface electromagnetic waves are found to build up along the excitation region and to propagate as free damped waves beyond. Correspondingly, the spatial dependence of the reflected intensity is found to exhibit a two-peak interference structure at the leading edge of the excitation region followed by an exponential decay beyond.