Abstract: We investigate the spectra of high-frequency electrostatic surface electron plasmon oscillations propagating normal to a dc-magnetic field. These oscillations are supported by two identical magnetoplasma slabs separated by a vacuum slab. Propagation characteristics of surface magnetoplasma oscillations and their coupling are studied by simultaneously solving the homogeneous system of equations obtained by matching the electrostatic fields at the interfaces together with the warm plasma dielectric function of upper hybrid waves. We demonstrate the existence of two propagating magnetoplasma electrostatic surface modes (backward and forward modes). The backward mode emerges at frequency ω=ω_uh=√(ω_pe^2+ω_ce^2 ), where ω_pe and ω_ce are the electron plasma frequency and the electron cyclotron frequency, respectivily, and the forward propagating mode emerges at a lower frequency ω=ω_uh-ω_pe. The forward and backward surface modes become coupled and form a single mode at upper hybrid resonance quasi-static value ω=ω_uh/√2.
Keywords: Upper hybrid modes, Plasma slab waveguide, Coupled plasmon surface modes.
Plasma slab expansion into vacuum
