Reflection of a planar ion-acoustic soliton from a finite plane boundary

Experimental observations on the partial reflection of a planar ion-acoustic soliton from a plane rigid boundary with sharp density gradients are presented. The reflected wave attenuates rapidly, forming a spherical wave front apart from a small reflector. The reflection coefficient of about 25% at the boundary has no apparent dependence on the incident wave amplitude and the sheath thickness in front of the reflector in the case of the disk reflector, while it has a dependence in the case of the mesh reflector, having even larger values of up to about 50%.