Transient excitation of a wire antenna in front of an interface

We consider the transient excitation of a straight thin-wire antenna which is located parallel to the interface between two homogeneous dielectric half-spaces. This problem is of interest in two respects. First, it is one of the most simple configurations that exhibit coupling between an antenna that generates a pulsed electromagnetic wave and the medium irradiated by that wave. Such coupling effects are important in various applications including ground radar, electromagnetic stimulation of biological tissue, and indoor communication. Second, it combines the modeling of a straight thin-wire segment excited by a pulsed voltage source and a pulsed incident field, and of a horizontally stratified dielectric medium excited by a localized, pulsed source.