The diffraction of a plane electromagnetic wave by a perfectly conducting half-plane in an anisotropic plasma is considered. The plasma is characterized by a permittivity tensor and the wave is assumed to propagate in a direction normal to the magnetostatic field and the diffracting edge, but its angle of incidence is otherwise arbitrary. Only the H-polarized wave of the incident field, which has a single magnetic field component parallel to the edge, is affected by the anisotropy and the analysis is restricted accordingly. Representing the scattered field as an angular spectrum of plane waves leads to dual integral equations from which an expression for the scattered field is obtained. The total field is then reduced to Fresnel integrals and its far-field behavior is investigated. Agreement with Seshadri and Rajagopal's result for a wave normally incident on the conductor, which was obtained by using the Wiener–Hopf technique, is found. The differences between isotropic and anisotropic solutions to this problem, which arise from the differing boundary conditions on the tangential magnetic field, are examined.
Cylindrical-wave diffraction by a rational wedge
