title: Structure of an edge-dislocation wave originating in plane-wave diffraction by a half-plane.
abstract: A new treatment of the well-known Sommerfeld solution of the problem of plane-wave diffraction from a perfectly conducting half-plane is reported. We show, in both theory and experiment, that the diffraction field (E-polarization) can be represented as a superposition of real physically existing waves, in contrast to geometrical and boundary waves postulated in Sommerfeld's representation. Our representation includes two pairs of wave components: one pair propagates along the direction of the incident wave, and the other in a mirror-reflected direction. Each wave pair consists of a plane-wave component with an amplitude half that of the incident wave and a nearly plane-wave component with an infinitely extended edge dislocation. On the basis of the proposed interpretation, all features of the half-plane diffraction are explained.
authors.affiliation: MetroLaser, Inc, Irvine, California 92614-6428, USA. khizh@metrolaserinc.com
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Khizhnyak
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Anokhov
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Lymarenko
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Soskin
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Vasnetsov