Emission of surface light waves from distributed Bragg mirrors

A theoretical analysis is made of the process of reflection of surface light waves from distributed Bragg mirrors formed by corrugations on a part of a waveguide. A more accurate allowance for the coupling and detuning coefficients shows that the process of coupling of waves in the second and higher diffraction orders may result in enhancement of light emission from distributed mirrors and, if the profiles of the corrugations are not selected in any special manner, the maximum value of the reflection coefficient may be considerably less than unity even in the absence of light absorption in the waveguide.