Reflections on the Zenneck Wave

In this presentation we review the basic properties of the Zenneck surface wave, and compare and contrast this type of wave with the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) type of surface wave. Although both types of surface waves propagate on the interface between two half-spaces of material, their physical properties are very different. For example, a simple vertical electric dipole source will never excite a field that looks like the Zenneck wave on the interface, while the SPP field can be a dom-inant part of the total dipole field. The issue of "pole vs. zero" of the reflection coefficient for these waves is also clarified, and a relationship between a Zenneck wave and a leaky wave is shown.