A scheme of plasmon excitation at the interface between metal and a photonic crystal

A one-dimensional photonic crystal and an incident light wave that is noncollinear with the permittivity gradient of the crystal are considered. On the basis of coupled-mode equations, eigensolutions for the fields are obtained; a special focus is placed on evanescent waves. Field transformation at the crystal-air and crystal-metal interfaces is analyzed. A condition for the resonance excitation of surface waves at the interface between a crystal and a metal is obtained, and an estimate is given for the efficiency of transformation of the original traveling wave into a surface wave.