Waves in an active medium guided by a reactive surface with reactance of gain modulation

Abstract

The characteristics of surface waves (i) in a passive medium supported by a passive surface with reactance modulation and an active surface with the modulation of either the reactance or the negative resistance, and (ii) in an active medium supported by a passive surface with a reactance modulation are investigated with emphasis on the band regions. The periodic variation is sinusoidal and is in the propagation direction. For a passive medium terminated by a passive surface with a reactance modulation, there are stop bands in frequency for the surface waves and the structure of the first two stop bands is analyzed. For a passive medium terminated by an active surface and for an active medium terminated by a reactance-modulated passive surface, the characteristics of the absolute instabilities occurring in the first-order band are examined. The nature of the convective instability taking place in the second-order band for an active medium terminated by a reactance-modulated surface is discussed. Analytical expressions for the frequency shift of the second-order band are deduced. The Floquet theory is used to obtain the exact dispersion relation in the form of a continued fraction which is analyzed by singular expansions.