Surface Josephson Plasma Waves in Layered Superconductors

Sergey Savel’ev; Valery Yampol’skii; Franco Nori

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.187002

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Surface Josephson Plasma Waves in Layered Superconductors

Sergey Savel’ev, Valery Yampol’skii, Franco Nori

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.187002 · Physical Review Letters

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Abstract

We predict the existence of surface waves in layered superconductors in the THz frequency range, below the Josephson plasma frequency ωJ. This wave propagates along the vacuum-superconductor interface and dampens in both transverse directions out of the surface (i.e., towards the superconductor and towards the vacuum). This is the first prediction of propagating surface waves in any superconductor. These predicted surface Josephson plasma waves are important for different phenomena, including the complete suppression of the specular reflection from a sample (Wood’s anomalies) and a huge enhancement of the wave absorption (which can be used as a THz detector).

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown
Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8+δ Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown