Besides classical applications (radar and stealth, antennas, microwave engineering), scattering and diffraction are enabling phenomena for some emerging research fields (artificial electromagnetic materials or metamaterials, terahertz technologies, electromagnetic aspects of nano-science). This book is a tutorial for advanced students who need to study diffraction theory. The textbook gives fundamental knowledge about scattering and diffraction of electromagnetic waves and provides some working examples of solutions for practical high-frequency scattering and diffraction problems. The book focuses on the most important diffraction effects and mechanisms influencing the scattering process and describes efficient and physically justified simulation methods - physical optics (PO) and the physical theory of diffraction (PTD) - applicable in typical remote sensing scenarios. The material is presented in a comprehensible and logical form, which relates the presented results to the basic principles of electromagnetic theory.
The book covers: * basic definitions and equations (Maxwell's equations, boundary conditions, edge conditions, radiation conditions, radiation integral, scattering matrix and RCS); * basic solution methods (separation of variables, Wiener-Hopf technique, Watson transformation, geometrical optics, geometrical theory of diffraction, physical optics, and physical theory of diffraction); * solutions of Maxwell's equations for basic canonical geometries (a flat material interface, a circular cylinder, a sphere, a wedge, a half plane, a circular disc, an open-ended waveguide, and a cone) and their detailed analysis; * explanations of fundamental scattering phenomena (edge and tip singularities, reflection from smoothly curved surfaces and flat non-metallic surfaces, edge-diffracted waves, creeping waves, multiply reflected / diffracted waves, surface waves, waveguide modes, tip-diffracted waves); * a PTD-based approach for simulation of scattering and diffraction from generally shaped targets.
