Anomalous reflection and excitation of surface waves in metamaterials

We consider reflection of electromagnetic waves from layered structures with various dielectric and magnetic properties, including metamaterials. Assuming periodic variations in the permittivity, we find that the reflection is in general anomalous. In particular, we note that the specular reflection vanishes and that the incident energy is totally reflected in the backward direction, when the conditions for resonant excitation of leaking surface waves are fulfilled.