e tightly bound to the interface (as &omega approaches &omegasp), as the energy of the field becomes more concentrated in the metal. Consequently, there is a trade-off between confinement and propagation distance.
A final property of interest that can be obtained from the dispersion diagram shown in figure A-2 is the group velocity of the surface wave. Any information carried by the wave will propagate at the wave group velocity, vg = (&part &omega / &part k). As &omega approaches &omegasp, vg asymptotically approaches zero.
The dispersion diagram plots shown above were generated using matplotlib, an open source plotting library written in Python; the source code of the python script for the plots can be downloaded here. The images of the above equations were generated using latex and latex2html; the .tex file can be downloaded here. The figure of the Kretschmann-Raether coupler was drawn in Inkscape, an open source vector graphics editor; the svg file can be downloaded here.
© 2007 Justin White. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
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