Radiation from dipoles in a magneto-ionic medium

The radiation from elementary dipoles in a magnetoionic medium and in the presence of a grounded gyroelectric plasma slab has been studied. The problems are formulated by using the Fourier-transform technique. Solutions which are valid everywhere can be expressed only in integral forms. Asymptotic solutions for the far field are obtained by the saddle-point method. In the case of an infinite medium, the far field has been found to be composed of a number of waves propagating in different directions with unequal phase and group velocities. Each component wave has been arranged in the form of a characteristic plane wave pertinent to the medium, its direction of power flow being shown to be radial. In the case of the slab problem, the space wave has been found to be generally elliptically polarized. This is due to the characteristic of a plasma-free space interface which, except for some particular cases, has the property of coupling the two characteristic plane waves in both media. The radiation patterns are markedly influenced by the thickness of the plasma slab and the relative frequencies and of the plasma medium.