Interference effects in detachment of surface electromagnetic waves from the edge of a metal substrate

It is shown that the distribution of surface electromagnetic waves in the far-field zone has distinct maxima and minima. It is shown that interference in a surface electromagnetic wave, which becomes detached from the edge of a metallized substrate, with a wave which is scattered by a device used to excite the surface wave and which propagates along the substrate, can account satisfactorily for the nature of the resultant distribution of radiation.