Analytical investigation on a new approach for achieving deep penetration in a lossy medium. The lossy prism

Recent studies highlighted deep-penetration properties of inhomogeneous waves at the interface between a lossless and a lossy medium. Such waves can be generated by means of radiating structures known as Leaky-Wave Antennas (LWAs). Here, a different approach is proposed based on the use of a lossy prism capable to generate an inhomogeneous wave when illuminated by a homogeneous wave. The lossy prism is conceived and designed thinking of Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR). The results achieved by the lossy prism will be compared with those obtained by means of a previously designed LWA that was created with the identical objective. The approach of this paper is purely theoretical, and it aims at providing basic ideas and preliminary results useful for an innovative LWA design.