Nonlinear Wood anomalies in the reflectivity of layered superconductors

Abstract

The excitation of nonlinear surface Josephson plasma waves in slabs of layered superconductors is studied theoretically by means of incident plane waves using the prism method in the Otto configuration. The bilateral excitation symmetric with respect to the magnetic field is considered. The excitation leads to the resonant suppression of the specular reflection, i.e. to the Wood anomalies. Due to the nonlinearity the reflectivity resonantly depends not only on the wave frequency ω and the incident angle θ but on the wave amplitude h as well. It is shown that total suppression of reflectivity can be attained by an appropriate choice of ω, θ, h, and other parameters of the problem. The results of the analytical calculations are supported by numerical simulations.