Perfect absorption of water waves by linear or nonlinear critical coupling

We report on experiments of perfect absorption for surface gravity waves impinging a wall structured by a subwavelength resonator. By tuning the geometry of the resonator, a balance is achieved between the radiation damping and the intrinsic viscous damping, resulting in perfect absorption by critical coupling. Besides, it is shown that the resistance of the resonator, hence the intrinsic damping, can be controlled by the wave amplitude, which provides a way for perfect absorption tuned by nonlinear mechanisms. The perfect absorber that we propose, without moving parts or added material, is simple and robust and presents a deeply subwavelength ratio wavelength/thickness of ≃ 18.