Surface Electromagnetic Wave at a Tilted Uniaxial Bicrystalline Interface

Abstract

The propagation of a surface electromagnetic wave at the interface of identical uniaxial dielectric half-spaces with a relative twist in their orientation about an axis perpendicular to the interface is formulated as a boundary value problem, the direction of propagation being along the bisector of the relative twist angle and both optic axes being tilted to the interface. Only positive uniaxiality supports surface-wave propagation. When the optic axes in both half-spaces are tilted relative to the interface, the range of the relative twist angle which supports surface waves diminishes and eventually disappears at some maximum value of the tilt angle which depends on the degree of uniaxiality. At optical frequencies and with relatively large degree of uniaxiality, the surface waves are localized within 10's to 100's of nm of the interface.