Efficient Higher-Order Analysis of Electromagnetic Scattering by Objects Above, Below, or Straddling a Half-Space

Efficient higher-order analysis of electromagnetic scattering from arbitrary three-dimensional conducting objects above, below, or even straddling a half-space is conducted in this letter. Due to the complexity of the half-space Green's function, it is desirable to reduce the degrees of freedom and especially the number of field-source interactions to a minimum level. To achieve this, a recently developed higher-order basis function based on curvilinear triangular patches is extended to half-space applications and investigated carefully from different aspects. Due to the flexibility of order selection, a uniform mesh guarantees the modeling accuracy even when the scatterer is straddling the interface of the half-space, where extremely nonuniform or multiscale mesh is always required in the traditional methods due to the distinct wavelengths of the surrounding media. Moreover, this higher-order method significantly simplifies the wideband simulation, which is important in various half-space applications.