The coupling of microwave radiation to surface plasmon polaritons and guided modes via dielectric gratings

It is shown that an absorbing dielectric layer, sinusoidally modulated in height, on top of a planar metal substrate, may be used to provide coupling between both s- and p-polarized incident microwave photons and surface plasmon polaritons, which propagate along the metal–dielectric interface. The study is carried out using paraffin wax as the dielectric material on an aluminum-alloy plate and the wax is sufficiently thick such that it may also support a guided mode. Energy reradiated from these excited modes into diffracted orders is recorded by monitoring the specular beam reflectivity as a function of wavelength (7.5<λ0<11.3 mm) and azimuthal angle of incidence (0°<φ<90°). The azimuthal-angle-dependent reflectivity scans are fitted using a multilayer, multishape differential formalism to model conical diffraction with a single set of parameters describing the grating profile, and the permittivity and thickness of the wax layer.