2000A&A...360..592P

Refraction of ordinary superluminous waves in an ultrarelativistic highly magnetized plasma of pulsars is considered. The effect is found to cause an essential redistribution of rays in final directions which leads to the formation of separate components in pulse profiles. It is shown that refraction of waves in pulsar magnetospheres can account for the main features of profile morphology given that the hollow-cone emission model is the case. The observed frequency evolution of pulsar profiles appears to be well explained by the frequency dependence of the refraction efficiency if one also takes into account the effects of observational geometry. Special attention is paid to the interpretation of the inner conal components within the frame of our model.