Morphological effects on the excitation of surface waves in the grating-coupled configuration

Grating-coupled excitation of surface plasmon-polariton waves guided by the interface of a metal and an anisotropic dielectric material evinces morphological effects arising from the divergence of structural anisotropy (grating) from constitutive anisotropy (dielectric material). Even if the metal is replaced by an isotropic dielectric material, the same effects are seen in the excitation of Dyakonov surface waves. The morphological effects vanish with constitutive anisotropy, as exemplified with a columnar thin film (CTF) as the dielectric material. Both p-polarized and s-polarized incident plane waves can excite the surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) waves as well as Dyakonov surface waves, provided that either the plane of incidence and/or the morphologically significant plane of the CTF do not coincide with the grating plane.