METHOD FOR COMPUTING THE ATTENUATION COEFFICIENT OF ELECTROMAGNETIC-WAVES IN ANISOTROPIC-PLASMA COLUMNS

A new and efficient method for calculating the attenuation coefficient of weakly damped electromagnetic waves traveling along wave-guiding structures partially or entirely filled by a lossy anisotropic dielectric, in particular cold axially magnetized plasma, is proposed. The structure cross-section geometry can be arbitrary and any nonradiating mode can be considered. In the case of plasma columns, they might be transversely inhomogeneous. Having obtained the attenuation coefficient, it is straightforward to find out the axial structure of plasma columns sustained by the waves themselves. The method is applied to azimuthally symmetric and dipolar waves in cylindrical plasma columns and it is found to reproduce all known theoretical results within its applicability. © 1994 American Institute of Physics.