Spatial propagation and damping of ordinary electromagnetic mode

Abstract

The spatial propagation and damping of the ordinary electromagnetic mode is studied by making use of the Vlasov approach and treating the wave vector as complex while treating the frequency as real. Such a treatment is applicable to situations where an incident electromagnetic wave from outside the spatially confined plasma is absorbed at the plasma surface, or is transmitted into the plasma. This approach of investigating the behavior of plasma wave characteristics shows certain features that are fundamentally different from the analogous wave analysis from the view point of the customary initial value problem in which the wave frequency is treated as complex while regarding the wave vector as real. Both numerical and analytical methods are employed in order to unveil the complicated structure of the hitherto unexplored spatial structure of the ordinary electromagnetic wave as it either propagates in space or suffers spatial attenuation. Possible applications of the present findings are discussed.