Probing losses of dielectric multilayers by means of Bloch surface waves

We exploit the excitation of electromagnetic surface waves on high-quality dielectric multilayers to measure the very low extinction coefficient of the structures, with a resolution down to 4.10(-7) and in a simple optical configuration. The effect of exposition to a rhodamine 6G solution in water and ethanol is also reported, including dye adsorption in the layers and bleaching upon resonant excitation.