Surface-wave propagation along the boundary of a plasma with nonlocal anisotropic electric properties

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Abstract
We have developed an effective description of surface-wave propagation along the boundary between vacuum and a dense plasma or a low-density and high-density plasma in the case when the high-density plasma can be characterized by a nonlocal asymmetric conductivity tensor. This last condition leads to a different dispersion relation from the well-known one for surface waves. The asymmetric conductivity significantly affects the phase velocity and attenuation of the surface wave and makes the conditions for its excitation simpler. The effects of energy dissipation in the dense plasma on the evanescent and surface waves are taken into consideration. It is shown that damping of the surface wave in the propagation direction is low, if the surface impedance is small (‖ξ‖≪1). We also discuss the possibilities of excitation surface waves in different geometries.