Waves obliquely incident upon a stratified anisotropic slab: A variational reaction approach

The propagation problems of waves obliquely incident upon a stratified anisotropic slab are analyzed through a variational reaction approach. A “partial” variational equation is first derived from the variation of reactions, and is then solved via the finite element method. Advantages of such an approach are simplicity in formulation and efficiency in numerical solution. Also included are numerical results for the problem of waves incident upon a stratified magnetoplasma.