Interaction of ultrasonic waves incident at the Rayleigh angle onto a liquid-solid interface

Abstract

The behavior of a Gaussian ultrasonic beam incident on a liquid-solid interface at the Rayleigh angle, the angle at which surface waves are excited on the interface, has been studied in some detail. The reflected beam is displaced in the manner predicted by Schoch; however, the ’’Schoch displacement’’ in general is too large. Good agreement is obtained between experimental results and the theory of Bertoni and Tamir, which assumes that the incident beam couples resonantly into a leaky surface wave at the Rayleigh angle and that the energy reradiated from this leaky surface wave interferes with specularly reflected energy. The propagation distance of the ultrasonic beam is explicitly included in describing the ultrasonic wave reflection at the Rayleigh angle.