In the ion cyclotron range of frequencies, electromagnetic surface waves are physically relevant for wave–filament interactions, parasitic edge losses and sheath–plasma waves. They are also important numerically, where non-physical surface waves may occur as side effects of slab-geometry approximations. We give new, completely general, mathematical techniques to construct dispersion relations for electromagnetic surface waves between any two media, isotropic or anisotropic, and first-order corrections for when the material interface is steep but continuous. We discuss numerical issues (localized non-convergence, undesired power generation) that arise in numerical calculations due to the presence of surface waves.

在离子回旋加速器频率范围内，电磁表面波与波-丝相互作用、寄生边缘损失和鞘-等离子体波在物理上相关。它们在数值上也很重要，其中非物理表面波可能会作为平板几何近似的副作用出现。我们给出了新的、完全通用的数学技术来构建任意两种介质（各向同性或各向异性）之间电磁表面波的色散关系，以及当材料界面陡峭但连续时的一阶校正。我们讨论由于表面波的存在而在数值计算中出现的数值问题（局部不收敛、不希望的发电）。