Plane Wave Propagation

For the EM fields to exist they must satisfy the four Maxwell’s equations at the source where
they are generated, at any point in a medium through which they propagate and at the load where
they are received or absorbed.

General Wave Equations

Consider a uniform but charge free medium ( t ) with dielectric constant magnetic
permeability and conductivity . Under this conditions Maxwell’s equations become

∇ t

∇ t

Take the curl of the first equation

∇ ∇ ∇

Using the vector identity ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ we get

∇ ∇ ∇ ∇

But ∇ t; changing the order of differentiation we get

∇ ∇

Substituting for ∇ from the second Maxwell’s equation we get

∇ μσ

Which is a set of three scalar equations one for each component of the field in a conducting
medium.

Note:--The Laplacian of a vector quantity is defined in rectangular coordinates as

 ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇

An the Laplacian operator is

This is why we said that the equation ∇ μσ is a set of three scalar equations.
Equate the corresponding vector components on each side of the equation.

Similarly, we can also obtain a set of three equations in terms of the H as

∇ μσ

The set of six independent equations are known as the general wave equations. These equations
govern the behavior of all EM fields in a uniform but source free conduction medium. The
presence of the first order term in a second order deferential equation indicates that the fields
decay as they propagate through the medium. For this reason, a conducting medium is called a
lossy medium.

Plane Wave in a dielectric medium

Consider a dielectric medium in which the conduction current is almost nonexistence in

comparison to the displacement current. Such a medium may be treated as a perfect medium or
lossless medium. Thus, by setting t we obtain the wave equations for a lossless medium as

∇ t

∇ t

These equations are called the time dependent Helmholtz equations, they still represent a set of
six scalar equations. The absence of the first order term signifies that the EM fields do not decay
as they propagate in a lossless medium.

Let us assume that the components of the field quantities and lie in a transverse plane, i.e. a
plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the wave. We refer to such a wave as a
plane wave. Let us consider that a plane wave propagates in the z direction then the fields have
no components in the longitudinal direction (the direction of wave propagation). That is t
and t . Such a wave is called a transverse electromagnetic TEM wave.

In the family of plane waves, the uniform plane wave is one of the simplest to investigate. The
term uniform implies that at any time a field has the same magnitude and direction in a plane
containing it. Thus, for a uniform plane wave propagating in the z direction E and H are not
functions of x and y that is t, t and t, t . For a uniform plane wave
propagating in the z direction the Helmholtz equations can be expressed as

Where , , , are the transverse components of the E and H fields and in addition the
field components are functions of z, the direction of propagation, and time only. Each of these
four equations is a second order differential equation with two possible solutions. And because
these equations are similar their solutions must also be similar.

There are many possible functions that satisfy these wave equations however we are interested in
those functions that result in a traveling wave. We will focus our attention only on time
harmonic functions as possible solutions of the wave equations. This does not pose a
considerable threat to the general solution of the wave equations because any periodic function
may be represented in terms of infinite series of sinusoidal functions (Fourier transform/series).
Thus, for time harmonic fields each wave equation can be expressed in its phasor equivalent
form. For example

Where is a phasor form of and is the angular frequency of the wave in

rad/s and is the frequency of oscillation in . Similar equations can be written for the other
field components. For a monochromatic wave propagating in a uniform medium is a
constant quality. If we define a variable as β ω then we can rewrite the equation as

If we assume an exponential solution of the form t , where C and s are complex

constants. Substituting the assumed solution, in the above equation, we obtain . The
two solutions for the component of are and h where and h are
complex constants. Since we are considering a solution of a second order differential equation
the general solution is given by

If we express the two complex constants as and h h

h , then we get

h h
h h

As the general solution in phasor form of the wave equation for the component of the electric
field. It can be written in the time domain as

cos h cos h

The Forward Traveling Wave

Let us examine the first term on the right-hand side of the equation above the function
cos . Since refers to part of the phase, is known as the phase constant.
In a dielectric medium the phase constant is a linear function of and . At any point in a
transverse plane (z = constant) the function varies sinusoidally in time with the angular
frequency and has an amplitude of . The function reverts to its initial magnitude and phase
when increases by a time period T such that . The function also varies with z

At any given time (t = constant) the wave returns to its original magnitude and phase when z
increases by a wavelength such that . Accordingly by definition the wavelength is the
distance between two planes when the phase difference between them at any given time is
radians.

The time is not at a standstill and the wave is not stationary. The only quantity that can be
viewed as constant is the phase of the wave that is t where M is a constant
quantity. This equation stresses that z must increase as t increases to ensure that the phase of the
function is constant. Differentiating with respect to t we obtain the speed of a plane of constant
phase (phase speed) as

Or

Since and are both positive quantities the phase speed is greater than zero. Hence the wave
propagates in the positive z direction. The minus sign in the argument is the one that
dictates that the propagation of the wave is in the forward direction. The phase velocity of the
forward traveling wave is

Substituting for we can express the phase velocity in a dielectric medium as

ω n

Where t t t is the speed of light and is the index of refraction

of the medium.It is clear that the phase velocity is independent of frequency. A medium in
which the phase velocity is not a function of frequency is said to be non-dispersive, in a non-
dispersive medium the phase constant is a linear function of the angular frequency.

The Backward Traveling Wave

The second term h cos represents the backward traveling wave because it
moves in the negative z direction as time progresses. Equation cos
h cos h therefore represents the general solution of the wave equation
for the x component of the electric field as it includes both the forward and backward traveling
waves. Similar solution for the y component for the electric field can be obtained.

Boundless Dielectric Medium

Assume that the dielectric medium is of infinite extent and that only one wave is propagating in
the z direction. Assume that is a forward propagating wave in the positive z direction. Then the
x and y components of the E field in the phasor domain are

Using Maxwell’s equation we get the x and y components of the H field in phasor form as
These equations can also be written in concise form as

Where has the units of ohms since E has the units of V/m and H has the units of A/m.
For this reason, is called the intrinsic or wave impedance. For a wave traveling in a dielectric
medium is a pure resistance, and therefore the corresponding components of E and H are in
time phase with each other.