Diffraction by a Half-Plane in a Chiral Medium (Normal Incidence)

An exact, closed form solution is presented for a diffraction problem by a half-plane embedded in a chiral medium. The incidence direction of an electromagnetic plane wave is assumed to be normal to the edge of the half-plane. The problem has been reduced to a boundary value problem for two modal potentials satisfying distinct Helmholtz equations and coupled by the boundary conditions at the half-plane. A solution is constructed with the aid of the Wiener-Hopf technique. A basic feature of the problem is its two-mode character exhibited by: two families of diffracted rays, reflection coupling of the modes, excitation of lateral waves.