Refraction of the ordinary wave near the electron cyclotron fundamental

Detailed ray tracing, of wave propagation in a plasma near electron cyclotron resonances, suggests that refraction can lead to reduced absorption,in some cases. By studying the full wave equation for the ordinary wave near the fundamental, in a slab model, it is shown that such refraction does indeed reduce absorption, for this particular case, but that wave energy tunnelling can significantly modify the result. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.