An overfilled cavity problem for Maxwell's equations

This paper is concerned with the mathematical analysis of the scattering of a time‐harmonic electromagnetic plane wave by an open and overfilled cavity that is embedded in a perfect electrically conducting infinite ground plane, where the electromagnetic wave propagation is governed by the Maxwell equations. Above the flat ground surface and the open aperture of the cavity, the space is assumed to be filled with a homogeneous medium with a constant permittivity and permeability, whereas the interior of the cavity is filled with some inhomogeneous medium with a variable permittivity and permeability. The scattering problem is modeled as a boundary value problem over a bounded domain, with transparent boundary condition proposed on the hemisphere enclosing the inhomogeneity represented by the cavity. The existence and uniqueness of the weak solution for the model problem are established by using a variational approach. The perfectly matched layer (PML) method is investigated to truncate the unbounded electromagnetic cavity scattering problem. It is shown that the truncated PML problem attains a unique solution. An explicit error estimate is given between the solution of the original scattering problem and that of the truncated PML problem. The error estimate implies that the PML solution converges exponentially to the original cavity scattering problem by increasing either the PML medium parameter or the PML layer thickness. The convergence result is expected to be useful for determining the PML medium parameter in the computational electromagnetic scattering problem. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.