Analysis of leaky-surface-wave propagating under periodic metal grating

A detailed field analysis is presented for a leaky surface wave propagating under a periodic metal grating, using a theory that neglects the effect of mass loading due to the grating. The approach is based on Floquet's theorem and the coupled equations of wave motion with unperturbed mechanical and perturbed (or periodic) electrical boundary conditions, yielding a general field solution applicable to any material and to arbitrary connections to the grating. As a key step, the periodic boundary equations are solved by combining them into a set of infinite homogeneous equations through algebraic treatment and performing orthogonal integration with respect to space harmonics. The advantage in using this method results from there being no need to use assumptions or complicated expressions anticipating an accurate solution if sufficient space harmonics are considered. It is shown that the theory proposed here can be directly extended to solve simpler SAW problems. An analysis is carried out for LiNbO(3) for both the leaky wave and Rayleigh wave, taking into account dispersion relations, propagation attenuation of the leaky wave, and other field distributions. Theoretical and experimental results for the width of the first stopband are discussed.