Measurement of silicon dioxide surface phonon-polariton propagation length by attenuated total reflection

The authors present an experimental measurement of the propagation length of surface phonon-polaritons on amorphous silicon dioxide using the method of attenuated total reflection. The measurements yield a propagation length of 10.8±1.3μm for the silicon dioxide surface phonon-polariton resonance at 9μm, which is in good agreement with the calculated value.