Diffraction of an E -polarized plane wave by an imperfectly conducting wedge

A new and exact solution is obtained for the diffraction of an E-polarized electromagnetic plane wave by an imperfectly conducting wedge of arbitrary angle. The original boundaryvalue problem is reduced to the solution of an ordinary difference equation. This equation is solved in terms of the double gamma function defined by Barnes (1899). If the wedge angle is equal to pπ/2q where p and q are relatively prime integers, with p odd, the difference equation is soluble in a simple closed form. The resulting solution for the field components is then comparatively simple. The present theoretical results show very good agreement with experimental results in the shadow region for normal incidence on a 16° wedge.