Diffraction of light by a surface with a large amplitude of modulated relief and surface nonlinear optical effects

A theory of the diffraction of light is developed for a surface with a spatially periodic profile characterized by large-amplitude modulation of the surface relief. Simple analytic expressions for all the components of the diffracted electric and magnetic fields (inside and outside the medium) are obtained both for metals and insulators in the case of arbitrary angles of incidence and arbitrary polarization of the incident light, and arbitrary orientation of the surface grating. General expressions for the fields can be used to analyze nonlinear regimes of a number of optical effects on the surface. A detailed study is made of the total suppression of specular reflection by a surface with a sinusoidal relief. Local fields near the surface are calculated. It is shown that the theoretical results are in good agreement with published experimental data.