We theoretically studied photorefractive surface waves supported by polymers with orientationallyenhanced photorefractive effect. We find that the orientational enhancement and the dependency of thequantum efficiency of generating mobile holes on the electric field make the diffusion nonlinearity inphotorefractive polymers dependent not on only the variation of light intensity but also on external electricfield, which is very different from the external electric field independent diffusion nonlinearity in inorganicphotorefractive crystals. Consequently the profile, frequency and especially the penetration depth ofpolymeric photorefractive surface waves strongly depend on external electric field, which makes it morecontrollable than that in photorefractive inorganic crystals. The stability of polymeric photorefractive surfacewaves, the effects of birefringence component and electro-optic component of orientationally enhancedphotorefractive nonlinearity on the formation of x or y-polarized polymeric photorefractive surface wavesare also discussed.
