Multiple trains of same-color surface plasmon-polaritons guided by the planar interface of a metal and a sculptured nematic thin film. Part II: Arbitrary incidence

The absorbance, reflectance, and transmittance of a linearly polarized, obliquely incident plane wave were calculated for the planar interface of a metal and a sculptured nematic thin film (SNTF) in the Kretschmann configuration, the wave vector of that plane wave being arbitrarily oriented with respect to the morphologically significant plane of the SNTF. The permittivity profile of the chosen SNTF was supposed to have been sculptured during physical vapor deposition by varying the vapor incidence angle sinusoidally about a mean value. Regardless of the orientation of the wave vector, multiple surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) trains or waves of the same color but different phase speeds and guided by the metal/SNTF interface can be excited.