Wave excitation and propagation in a metal wire array

Analysis of wave propagation in a periodic metal wire array has long been of interest because of the structure´s unique electromagnetic characteristics. In the 1960s, Rotman first examined wave propagation in a periodic array consisting of infinitely-long metal wires using a transmission-line approach (W. Rotman, IRE Trans. AP, 10, 82-95, 1962). More recently, the effective medium description of a metal wire array is introduced and strong spatial dispersion effect is shown intrinsic to the structure (P. Belov et al., Phys. Rev. B, 67, 113103, 2003). Based on the effective medium description, wave propagation inside a finite-length metal wire array is investigated by solving a scattering problem with plane-wave incidence (M. Silveirinha et al., IEEE Trans. AP., 56, 405-415, 2008) or by finding a source-free eigensolution (A. Yakovlev et al., IEEE Trans. MTT., 57, 2700-2714, 2009).