Sinusoidally modulated reactance surface approach for spoof plasmon radiation

Abstract

In this paper we employ the theory of sinusoidally modulated reactance surfaces (SMRSs) to enable leaky wave antennas (LWAs) capable of converting spoof plasmons (SPs) to radiating modes. SPs are surface waves excited along engineered metallic corrugated surfaces and their dispersion properties closely resemble those of the well-known optical surface plasmon polaritons. By judiciously modifying the depth of the grooves along a corrugated metallic surface the structure is engineered such that it exhibits a sinusoidally modulated reactance profile. In this way, the guided SPs can efficiently couple into free-space radiating modes under the proper conditions.