Diffraction by a thick perfectly conducting half-plane

The angular spectrum method involves the integral representation of the scattered field in terms of the angular spectra of the pertinent surface currents. Here the angular spectrum method in conjunction with the scattering matrix formulation is used for the diffraction analysis of a thick perfectly conducting half-plane considering both polarizations of incidence. Of particular interest is the scattering behavior by edges of thicknesses less than a wavelength where a geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) solution is generally not applicable. Several backscatter and bistatic patterns are then presented in this range of thicknesses, and for the backscatter case some are also compared with measured data. It is found that a combination of the angular spectrum method and GTD can be employed for the efficient analysis of an edge of arbitrary thickness.