The lateral confinement of microwave surface waves

• Main Author: Brock, Elizabeth Martine Gerber
• Other Authors: Hibbins, Alastair
• Published: University of Exeter 2013
• Subjects: 500
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.615546

Surface waves and their applications have been extensively studied by the photonics and radio engineering communities throughout the whole of the twentieth century. This thesis details briefly the history of both approaches and highlights their signi cance with regard to the subject of this thesis; laterally confining a surface wave in the microwave regime. Detailed within are the experimental, analytical and numerical methods used to ascertain what, if any, effect a change in the dimension of a guiding structure has on the dispersion of a mode supported by a metamaterial. The method of experimentally determining the dispersion of a microwave surface wave is discussed. The insensitivity of a mode supported on a one-dimensional corrugated array to the lateral width of the supporting array, even when the width is much less than the wavelength of radiation incident upon it, is investigated. Spatial dependent reduction of group velocity associated with a microwave surface wave is also detailed. Local electric-field and phase measurements are used to probe this condition. In particular, the measurement of phase associated with the supported microwave surface wave is shown to indicate the trapping location of a surface wave more accurately when compared to local electric-field measurement. The channelling of surface waves via the addition of dielectric overlayers to a metamaterial surface is investigated. By progressively narrowing the width of the channel, the interaction of the electric fields associated with the mode supported in the channel with the bordering dielectric overlayer increases. This investigation leads to a discussion of the electric field overlap between two regions of differing surface impedance.