Investigation of the Propagation Length of Bloch Surface Waves on One Dimensional Photonic Crystals

A 1D photonic crystal structure sustaining optical surface waves is investigated. The propagation length of the surface mode is studied both using an eigenmode model and a rigorous time domain solver. The two models show good convergence. Our results demonstrate that by a carefully designed 1D photonic crystal, dielectric surface waves may propagate over several millimeters, even if a Kretschmann-type coupling configuration is used.