Principles of Electromagnetic Waves and Materials, 2nd Edition

11Wave in Anisotropic Media and Magnetoplasma*

11.1Introduction

Plasma medium in the presence of a static magnetic field behaves like an anisotropic dielectric. Therefore, the rules of electromagnetic wave propagation are the same as those of the light waves in crystals. Of course, in addition, we have to take into account the dispersive nature of the plasma medium.

The well-established Magnetoionic Theory [1,2,3] is concerned with the study of wave propagation of an arbitrarily polarized plane wave in cold anisotropic plasma, where the direction of phase propagation of the wave is at an arbitrary angle to the direction of the static magnetic field. As the wave travels in such a medium, the polarization state continuously changes. However, ...