Scattering of surface waves by inhomogeneities in crystalline structures

In current scientific and technological scenarios, studies of transmittance of surface waves across structured interfaces have gained some wind amidst applications to metasurfaces, electronic edge-waves, crystal grain boundaries, etc. The results presented in the present article shed a light on the influence of material inhomogeneities on propagation of surface waves. Within the framework of classical mechanics, an analogue of the Gurtin–Murdoch model is employed where elastic properties on surface are assumed to be distinct from bulk. Restricting to scalar waves on prototype square lattice half-plane, particles on considered structured surface have piecewise-constant mass and surface force-constants across an interfacial point. Particles in bulk lattice interact with nearest neighbours in a way that involves unequal force-constants parallel to surface versus normal to it. A surface wave band exists for such lattice structure wherein the waveform decays exponentially inside the half-plane. A formula for surface wave transmittance is given based on an exact solution on half-plane, and, thus, previous work (Sharma & Eremeyev 2019 Int. J. Eng. Sci. 143, 33–38 (doi:10.1016/j.ijengsci.2019.06.007)) is extended. An explicit expression for fraction of energy influx leaked via bulk waves is a highlight. Included are graphical results for several illustrative values of surface structure parameters.