This paper illustrates how the penetration of electromagnetic waves in lossy media strongly depends on the waveform and not only on the media involved. In particular, the so-called inhomogeneous plane waves are compared against homogeneous plane waves illustrating how the first ones can generate deep penetration effects. Moreover, the paper provides examples showing how such waves may be practically generated. The approach taken here is analytical and it concentrates on the deep penetration conditions obtained by means of incident inhomogeneous plane waves incoming from a lossless medium and impinging on a lossy medium. Both conditions and constraints that the waveforms need to possess to achieve deep penetration are analysed. Some results are finally validated through numerical computations. The theory presented here is of interest in view of a practical implementation of the deep penetration effect.
Keywords: deep penetration; electromagnetic propagation in absorbing media; inhomogeneous waves; leaky waves; lossy media.