Scattering cross-section of a cylindrical conducting particle illuminated by electromagnetic plane waves near a conducting quarter-space

Abstract The study of the electromagnetic scattering by a particle located near a perfectly conducting corner is a fundamental topic in radar imaging, communications, remote sensing and other applications. In earlier works, the analytical modeling considered the linear field and its scattering properties. Nonetheless, energy efficiencies (or cross-sections) are meaningful fundamental physical observables connected with quadratic quantities of the linear field, which reveal additional properties of the scatterer not obtained from the linear scattered field. The aim of this work is therefore directed toward developing an improved analytical formalism for the energy efficiency factors (or cross-sections) of a cylindrical conducting particle, illuminated by electromagnetic plane waves, and located near a perfectly conducting corner-space. Incident plane progressive waves with an arbitrary angle of incidence are considered in a homogeneous, non-dissipative and non-magnetic fluid. The multiple scattering effects occurring between the electrically-conducting cylindrical particle and corner are described rigorously using the modal expansion method in cylindrical coordinates, the classical method of images and the translational addition theorem. Exact closed-form series expansions are derived and numerical examples illustrate the analysis with particular emphases on the distances from the corner-space, particle size and polarization of the incident field. The results are useful to predict the energetic scattering for various applications, and can serve to validate the results of purely numerical methods in experimental design. Some analogies with the acoustical cross-section theory are also noted.