Excitation of surface Josephson plasma waves in layered superconductors

This is a theoretical study of the resonant suppression of the specular reflection of terahertz waves in layered superconductors due to the excitation of surface Josephson plasma waves (SJPWs). Here, we consider in detail the specific case of SJPW excitations by evanescent electromagnetic waves via the attenuated total reflection of incident waves in a dielectric prism. We also derive the dispersion relation for surface waves propagating along the vacuum-superconductor interface parallel to the ab plane. We show that, due to the SJPW excitation, the reflectivity of the incident wave depends resonantly on both its frequency and incident angle. We find the optimal conditions for the best matching of the incident wave and SJPWs, as well as for the total suppression of the specular reflection.