Surface guided electromagnetic waves of first diffraction order in cholesteric films

Surface guided electromagnetic waves (SGEW) of optical wave range in cholesteric (CLC) films are theoretically examined in the framework of dynamical diffraction theory for the first order diffraction scattering. Main attention is paid to the polarization properties of SGEW which in the general case correspond to elliptical polarization and are dependent on the SGEW propagation direction relative to the director at the CLC surface, the SGEW frequency and the film thickness. It is found that SGEW attenuation along with strong dependence on the film thickness is very sensitive to the SGEW propagation direction and depends on the SGEW frequency. The above mentioned dependencies of the SGEW properties are calculated for typical experimental situation.