Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves Along a Thin Plasma Sheet

It is shown that a thin ionized sheet will support a trapped surface wave. The effect of a constant and uniform magnetic field is to modify the phase velocity and polarization of the surface wave. The essential features are illustrated by numerical results for selected values of the electron density, collision frequency, and gyro frequency. The effect of locating the plasma sheet near and parallel to a conducting plane is also considered. In this situation other modes of a waveguide type are possible in addition to the surface wave.