Radiative Surface Waves in Layered Plasma–Dielectric Structures and Prospects of Their Application in Plasma Microwave Electronics

Abstract

Abstract Surface waves in layered systems consisting of material media with different frequency dispersions are considered: dielectric–plasma–vacuum, vacuum–plasma–plasma, and dielectric–vacuum–plasma. It is shown that in such systems, one of the surface waves can be radiative into a medium that does not form an interface for the surface wave under consideration, in view of which the wave becomes decaying. In the dielectric–vacuum–plasma system, there is only one surface wave localized at the vacuum–plasma interface, which is radiative into the dielectric in a certain region of wavenumbers with a not too small thickness of the vacuum layer. For all cases, the possibilities of exciting surface waves of a layered structure by an electron beam are analyzed. It is indicated which surface waves will be excited most efficiently. The prospects of using such waves in plasma microwave electronics in the development of sub-terahertz and possibly terahertz frequency ranges are shown.