Propagation of large bandwidth microwave signals in water

Abstract Large bandwidth microwave signals propagating in dispersive media can result in pulses decaying according to a non-exponential law. In particular, large bandwidth signals in the microwave band, propagating in media that can be described by the Debye model (for example fresh water), decays as the square root of the inverse of the propagation distance, instead of exponentially. Although it is a direct consequence of well-known theory of propagation in dispersive media, this result is a bit surprising and its experimental evidence has required a careful set-up.