Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 1997
The effects of dispersion of slow electromagnetic surface waves propagating across an external magnetic field in planar metallic waveguides with dielectric coating and non-uniform plasma filling on the harmonics of the electron cyclotron frequency are studied. The theoretical investigation of the surface modes is carried out using a kinetic description for the plasma particles and a mirror-reflection model for the interaction between particles and plasma boundary. The effect of the transverse plasma density inhomogeneity on the electron surface cyclotron-wave spectrum is investigated.