TE Waves in Arbitrary Periodic Slow-wave Structures with Rectangular Grooves

The dispersion characteristics of the transverse electric modes in a waveguide with circular cross-section and periodic rectangular surface corrugations with smoothed edges are examined by the space harmonic method. The whole structure is divided into two regions, one in the propagation area and one inside the grooves. In the first region, the Floquet theorem is applied and the field distribution is expressed as a summation of spatial Bloch components, while an appropriate Fourier expansion of standing waves is used inside the grooves. Applying the appropriate interface conditions, an infinite system of equations is obtained, which is solved numerically by truncation. Numerical results are presented for several cases to check the convergence and the accuracy of the method, as well as its dependence on the corrugation profile. This formalism could be easily expanded to include all kind of waves that can in principle propagate in such slow-wave structures.