Radiation from an electromagnetic source in a half-space of compressible plasma-surface waves

The radiation characteristics of a line source of magnetic current are studied for the case in which the source is situated in a half-space of isotropic, compressible plasma which is bounded on one side by a perfectly conducting, rigid plane screen. In addition to the electromagnetic and plasma space waves, the line source excites a boundary wave. This boundary wave is a coupled wave. It has associated with it both a magnetic field component and the pressure term. This is in contrast to the space waves which can be decomposed into an electromagnetic (EM) mode with no pressure term and a plasma (P) mode with no magnetic field associated with it. The characteristics of this boundary wave are evaluated. The boundary wave propagates for all frequencies and the power carried by the boundary wave becomes smaller as the frequency is increased.