Resonant shielding of an inhomogeneous gyrotropic plasma slab

Conclusions The problem of the incidence of a plane TM electromagnetic wave on an isotropic, symmetric, resonance plasma slab (n=2, 4, 6, ...), discussed in 1], was solved by an iteration method in a recent paper 6]. The physical results found there are the same as those of 1]. Zhivulin and Makarov 6] then applied the iteration method to the analogous problem of a gyrotropic resonance plasma slab 7]. The analysis in these papers furnishes a clearer mathematical justification of the results of 1] and the present paper and thus of the method used there. The present method, which satisfies only a physical condition of rigor, is preferable to the mathematically more rigorous methods (in particular, the iteration method) because of its simplicity, its graphic nature, and its clear physical meaning. It also answers many questions which cannot be answered in the more rigorous approach because of the serious difficulties which arise (and which have not yet been overcome).N. G. Denisov has called our attention to the fact that complete shielding was actually found previously by Rytov and Yudkevich 8], who treated the problem of the incidence of a plane TE electromagnetic wave on a slab with a dielectric constant (x)=₁ – A₁/(a – x)² for x<0. (x)=₂ – A₂/(b + x)² for x>0, and ₁ – A₁/(a² = ₂ – A₂/b² in the plane x=0. In the limita0, b0, they found results corresponding to a slab with a dielectric constant having a first-order pole; it is in this case that complete shielding is achieved. This method for obtaining the corresponding results is analogous to the method used in 1] and the present paper. We also note that the distribution of the effective dielectric constant (6) in the immediate vicinity of the pole—where the contribution of the last term. (1–u)x², can be neglected—is the same as the distribution adopted in 8] if we seta-b-0, ₁ = ₂, A₁=A₂=u.Scientific-Research Institute of Radiophysics. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 19, No. 8, pp. 1130–1141, August, 1976.