Prism-coupled excitation of Dyakonov–Tamm waves

Abstract

The prism-coupled excitation of Dyakonov–Tamm waves guided by the planar interface of a homogeneous, isotropic dielectric material and a periodically nonhomogeneous sculptured nematic thin film (SNTF) was investigated. The excitation of Dyakonov–Tamm waves was identified by correlating a high-absorptance band in the plots of absorptance vs. the incidence angle and the direction of propagation in the interface plane with the solutions of the underlying canonical boundary–value problem. Dyakonov–Tamm waves were found to have a much wider angular existence domain than Dyakonov waves, and broader absorptance peaks than both the Dyakonov and Tamm waves in the plots of absorptance vs. the incidence angle.