Electromagnetic propagation of Bessel-like localized waves in the presence of absorbing media

Recent years have witnessed important developments in the use of electromagnetic waves. Beyond the traditional utilization in the field of communication, electromagnetic waves found applications in many, and different, fields of research. An interesting field of research is related to the detection and characterization of buried objects of non-metallic nature. We present here a detailed analysis of localized electromagnetic waves (of the Bessel type) in the scalar approximation, after reflection on surfaces constituted by absorbing media. We show that the Bessel beam does not modify its shape when propagating in absorbing media, and that the reflected field intensity of the beam presents a gain with respect to a plane wave. We also analyze how this gain depends on the parameter values. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.