The theory and experimental investigations are presented for a new type of
quasi-optical near-millimeter-wave prismatic resonator, which provides freq
uency selective transformation of the plane waves into the surface waves, T
heoretical expressions are obtained for the Q-factor and finesse, which con
sider dielectric loss and the effect of prism finite aperture. The theoreti
cal evaluations are verified by experimental measurements in the frequency
range 300-500 GHz using prismatic resonator made from the optical quality f
used silica glass. The increase of intensity of surface waves by a factor o
f 10-25 is demonstrated for the prismatic resonator made from an extremely
low-loss dielectric.