Publications

This report examines the localization of high frequency electromagnetic fields in general three-dimensional cavities along periodic paths between opposing sides of the cavity. The focus is on the case where the mirrors at the ends of the orbit are concave and have two different radii of curvature. The cases where these orbits lead to unstable localized modes are known as scars. The ellipsoidal coordinate system is utilized in the construction of the scarred modes. The field at the interior foci is examined as well as trigonometric projections along the periodic scarred ray path.

Using the power balance method we estimate the maximum electric field on a conducting wall of a cavity containing an interior structure supporting eccentric coaxial modes in the frequency regime where the resonant modes are isolated from each other.

We examine coupling into azimuthal slots on an infinite cylinder with a infinite length interior cavity operating both at the fundamental cavity modal frequencies, with small slots and a resonant slot, as well as higher frequencies. The coupling model considers both radiation on an infinite cylindrical exterior as well as a half space approximation. Bounding calculations based on maximum slot power reception and interior power balance are also discussed in detail and compared with the prior calculations. For higher frequencies limitations on matching are imposed by restricting the loads ability to shift the slot operation to the nearest slot resonance; this is done in combination with maximizing the power reception as a function of angle of incidence. Finally, slot power mismatch based on limited cavity load quality factor is considered below the first slot resonance.

Metallic enclosures are commonly used to protect electronic circuits against unwanted electromagnetic (EM) interactions. However, these enclosures may be sealed with imperfect mechanical seams or joints. These joints form narrow slots that allow external EM energy to couple into the cavity and then to the internal circuits. This coupled EM energy can severely affect circuit operations, particularly at the cavity resonance frequencies when the cavity has a high Q factor. To model these slots and the corresponding EM coupling, a thin-slot sub-cell model [1] , developed for slots in infinite ground plane and extended to numerical modeling of cavity-backed apertures, was successfully implemented in Sandia's electromagnetic code EIGER [2] and its next-generation counterpart Gemma [3]. However, this thin-slot model only considers resonances along the length of the slot. At sufficiently high frequencies, the resonances due to the slot depth must also be considered. Currently, slots must be explicitly meshed to capture these depth resonances, which can lead to low-frequency instability (due to electrically small mesh elements). Therefore, a slot sub-cell model that considers resonances in both length and depth is needed to efficiently and accurately capture the slot coupling.