Gaussian beam diffraction in weakly anisotropic inhomogeneous media

Combination of quasi-isotropic approximation (QIA) of geometric optics with paraxial complex geometric optics (PCGO) is suggested, which allows describing both diffraction and polarization evolution of Gaussian electromagnetic beams in weakly anisotropic inhomogeneous media. Combination QIA/PCGO reduces Maxwell equations to the system of the ordinary differential equations of the first order and radically simplifies solution of various problems, related to microwave plasma diagnostics, including plasma polarimetry, interferometry and refractometry in thermonuclear reactors. Efficiency of the method is demonstrated by the example of electromagnetic beam diffraction in a linear layer of magnetized plasma with parameters, modeling tokamak plasma in the project ITER. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.