Dispersion Characteristics of Arbitrary Periodic Structures with Rectangular Grooves

The dispersion characteristics of a circular cylindrical waveguide with periodic surface corrugations consisting of rectangular grooves with smoothing are examined using the Space Harmonic Method (SHM). The whole structure is divided into two regions, one describing the propagation volume and one inside the grooves. In the first region, the Floquet theorem is applicable and the field distribution is expressed as a summation of spatial Bloch components, whereas in the second one an appropriate Fourier expansion of standing waves is used. Applying the boundary conditions an infinite system of equations is obtained, which is solved numerically by truncation. Several cases are considered, including the limiting cases of a sinusoidal and a rectangular corrugation profile, to check the accuracy of the method proposed as well as its dependence on the corrugation profile. Numerical results are presented only for transverse magnetic modes, although the formalism can be easily extended to include all kinds of waves that can in principle propagate in such a structure.