Effect of metal boundaries on surface-wave spectrum in plasma-vacuum structures

The effect of metal on the surface-wave spectrum in cylindrical metal-plasma-vacuum-metal and metal-vacuum-plasma-metal waveguide structures and waveguides with a single metal boundary is investigated. It is shown that such boundaries can greatly affect the spectral properties of the waveguide and change the nature of surface-wave dispersion. Analytic expressions are obtained for the frequency of symmetrical surface waves in various spectrum intervals. The strong dependence of phase velocity on the size of the internal metal cylinder that is found can be convenient for beam and wave synchronization in a plasma waveguide.