Two-Dimensional Modeling of Slot-Excited Surface Waves in Bounded Planar Plasmas.

The excitation of electromagnetic waves launched by a linear slot antenna in a planar bounded surface wave plasma is modeled and numerically analyzed. For simplicity, a two-dimensional (infinite along x) model is applied. The electromagnetic field distribution, the total field energy and the power reflection coefficient R are computed. All are found to depend critically on the electron density ne, and the density dependencies qualitatively reproduce the known experimental behavior. In particular, the computed R–ne dependencies with sharp minima at some resonance densities result in the experimentally observed [Ghanashev et al.: Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 36 (1997) 4704] mode jumps and hysteresis loops in the power–density curves. The computational efficiency achieved through the two-dimensional formulation makes the model suitable for use as a part of a self-consistent analysis of the surface-wave plasma source operation.