THE SPECTRUM OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES GUIDED BY A PLASMA LAYER
Abstract
The modal spectrum of a lossless, homogeneous and isotropic planar plasma layer is shown to contain contributions from surface waves and complex modes in addition to the usual continuous spectrum characteristic of open structures. These discrete contributions are only of the E-mode type and occur whenever the plasma dielectric constant (dc) is negative. The surface waves may be of the forward or the backward type and they carry power in opposite directions in the plasma and air regions. The complex modes are shown to appear always in degenerate pairs and, as a consequence, they carry no real power but may account for large reactive fields in the neighborhood of sources. For E-modes with positive values of dc and for all H-modes the spectrum is purely continuous; however, non-spectral leaky waves are then present which are significant in radiation considerations. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 13, 1961
- Accession Number
- AD0278127
Entities
People
- A.a. Oliner
- T. Tamir
Organizations
- Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories