Resonant diffraction radiation and Smith-Purcell effect

An approach has been developed where the Smith-Purcell radiation (SPR), i.e. emission of electrons moving close to a periodic structure, is treated as resonant diffraction radiation. Simple formulas have been designed for the SPR intensity for a grating having perfectly conducting strips spaced by a vacuum gap. The results have been compared with those obtained via other techniques. It has been shown that the intensity of radiation for the said gratings for a relativistic case sufficiently exceeds the SPR intensity for the grating made up by a periodically deformed continuous surface. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.