An exact solution for the impulse response of a uniform plasma half space

A horizontally polarized impulsive plane wave is incident on a uniform half space of cold lossless plasma. The exact form of the resultant impulse response is found for any depth in the plasma in terms of two integer-order Bessel functions by inverting an appropriate Laplace transform. It is shown that as the observer´s position in the plasma is increased, the frequency and relative amplitudes of the oscillations of the impulse response increase in a corresponding fashion. Numerical results are presented to illustrate these effects.