Diffraction by a half plane perpendicular to the distinguished axis of a gyrotropic medium (oblique incidence)

Abstract

An exact, closed form solution is found for the following half plane diffraction problem. (I) The medium surrounding the half plane is gyrotropic. (II) The scattering half plane is perfectly conducting and oriented perpendicular to the distinguished axis of the medium. (III) The direction of propagation of the incident electromagnetic plane wave is arbitrary (skew) with respect to the edge of the half plane. The result presented is a generalization of a solution for the same problem with incidence normal to the edge of the half plane (two-dimensional case).The fundamental, distinctive feature of the problem is that it constitutes a boundary value problem for a system of two coupled second order partial differential equations. All previously solved electromagnetic diffraction problems reduced to boundary value problems for either one or two uncoupled second order equations. (Exception: the two-dimensional case of the present problem.) The problem is formulated in terms of the (generalized) scalar Hertz potentials and leads to a set of two coupled Wiener–Hopf equations. This set, previously thought insoluble by quadratures, yields to the Wiener–Hopf–Hilbert method.The three-dimensional solution is synthesized from appropriate solutions to two-dimensional problems. Peculiar waves of ghost potentials, which correspond to zero electromagnetic fields play an essential role in this synthesis. The problem is two-moded: that is, superpositions of both ordinary and extraordinary waves are necessary for the spectral representation of the solution. An important simplifying feature of the problem is that the coupling of the modes is purely due to edge diffraction, there being no reflection coupling. The solution is simple in that the Fourier transforms of the potentials are just algebraic functions. Basic properties of the solution are briefly discussed.