Grounded ferrite perfect magnetic conductor and application to waveguide miniaturization

A grounded ferrite PMC, based on Faraday rotation combined with ground reflection in a grounded ferrite slab, is introduced and demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally. This grounded ferrite PMC is shown to enable a TEM rectangular waveguide whose cross-sectional dimensions are independent of frequency, thereby allowing waveguide miniaturization or aperture enhancement. In contrast to previously reported artificial PMC structures (typically EBGs), the proposed grounded ferrite PMC is perfectly homogeneous, and therefore acts as an ideal PMC boundary not only in the far-field but also for sources as close as desired to it. The grounded ferrite PMC operation frequency may be tuned by the applied bias field.