Electromagnetic

Waves

PHYSICS

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Electromagnetic Waves
Waves are of two types:

 Mechanical Wave: It requires a matter to propagate and these waves are also
known as elastic waves. Two types of mechanical wave are there;

 Longitudinal: Vibration of particles in a medium and the propagation of

the wave in the same direction.

Example: Sound waves in the air.

 Transverse: Vibration of particles in a medium and the propagation of

waves are perpendicular to each other.

Example: Waves on the surface of the water.

 Non-Mechanical waves: It does not require any matter to propagate from one
place to another as it consists of photons. These types of waves are also known as
electromagnetic waves.

Example: Light, Heat, etc.

Non-Mechanical waves can further be classifi ed as Electromagnetic and matter

waves

 Electromagnetic waves: The wave which is generated due to vibration

between electric field and magnetic field and it does not need any medium to
travel is called an electromagnetic wave. It can travel through a vacuum
without any medium.

 Matter Waves: In 1924, Louis de-Broglie suggested that similar to light

dual nature "every moving matter has an associated wave". The wave
associated with the moving particle is known as matter-wave or de-Broglie
wave. The de-Broglie wavelength of matter waves: As a photon travels with
a velocity c, we can express its momentum as

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Electromagnetic Waves
Electromagnetic waves or EM waves: The waves that are formed as a result
of vibrations between an electric field and a magnetic field and they are perpendicular
to each other and to the direction of the wave is called an electromagnetic wave.

 The accelerating charged particle produces an electromagnetic (EM) wave.

 A charged particle oscillating about an equilibrium position is an accelerating

charged particle.

 Electromagnetic waves do not require any matter to propagate from one place to
another as it consists of photons. They can move in a vacuum without any medium.

 Whereas equation for a progressive plane electromagnetic wave can be expressed

as

Properties of electromagnetic waves:

 Not have any charge or we can say that they are neutral.

 Propagate as a transverse wave.

 They move with the velocity the same as that of light i.e 3 × 108 m/s.

 It contains energy and they also contain momentum.

 They can travel in a vacuum also

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Types of E.M waves

 Electromagnetic spectrum: It is a collection of a range of different waves in se-
quential order from radio to gamma electromagnetic waves.

 Ultra-Violet: UV light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than

visible light in the range of 10 nm to 400 nm.

 Radio waves: The lowest frequency portion comes in radio waves generally, has
wavelengths range between 1 mm to 100 km or frequencies between 300 GHz to 3
kHz.

 Gamma rays have the shortest wavelength and radio waves have the longest
wavelength.

5. X-rays: An electromagnetic wave with wavelengths from 0.01 nm to 10 nm called X

-rays.

Whereas given figure shows different spectrums of electromagnetic waves.

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Maxwell’s Wave Equation

James Clerk Maxwell a Scotland physicist was the first person who concluded that light
is an electromagnetic wave by using his modified equation of electric and magnetic
waves.

And this modified Maxwell’s equation for electromagnetic waves are given as

Name Equation in vacuum Equation in matter

Modified Ampere-Maxwell law

Faraday’s law

Gauss law

Gauss law of magnetism

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The integral form of Maxwell equation for a vacuum can be expressed as

Name Equation in vacuum

Modified Ampere-Maxwell law

Faraday’s law

Gauss law

Gauss law of magnetism

E = Electric field, ρ = charge density, i = electric current

B = Magnetic field, ε0 = permittivity, J = current density

D = Electric displacement, μ0 = permeability, c = speed of light

H = Magnetic field strength, M = Magnetization, P = Polarization

Limitation of Maxwell’s wave equation

The conditions are given below under which Maxwell's electromagnetic equations can
be applied

 Maxwell's electromagnetic equations do not apply to media that move with respect
to system coordinates.

 Maxwell's electromagnetic equations do not apply to non-homogeneous media.

 Maxwell's electromagnetic equations do not apply to non-linear-media.

 Maxwell's electromagnetic equations can apply to non-isotropic media.

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Electromagnetic Wave Equations

Now to get the equation of electromagnetic wave propagating through a medium can
be proved using Modified Ampere-Maxwell law and Faraday’s law of electromagnetic
induction.

i.e.,

&

Now if E and H are electric fields and H is Magnetic field strength then the wave
equation for the electric field in a non-homogeneous, isotropic medium can be
expressed as

Here, J = σ E and D = ϵE

Similarly, wave equation for magnetic field is given as

By comparing this Maxwell derived the relation for the velocity of electromagnetic
waves and it was given as

i.e.,

Now for a nonmagnetic medium, the above equation can be modified as

Or

Here, n is the refractive index of the medium also ϵ = ϵrϵ0 and is used for the
matter

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The relation between E and H for a plane wave

Now to understand the relation between E and H, let’s consider a wave traveling along
positive z-direction such that the wave equation for the electric field for this wave can
be expressed as

Also, from this, we can predict that Ez =0, since the wave is propagating along the z-
axis.

Thus, according to Faraday law of electromagnetic induction, we know that

Using this we get

Or

….(∵ Bx =μ Hx)

Characteristic impedance

From the above equation, we get the ratio of the square root of ϵ0 and μ0 which is
dimensionally equivalent to impedance hence it is called intrinsic impedance and
characteristic impedance

Whereas for free space it is also written as

Energy density stored in the electric and magnetic

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As we know one of the properties of electromagnetic waves is that they transport

energy from one point to another and this energy density of a wave (U) is the amount
of energy radiated per unit volume. And as we discussed the E.M waves consists of
the oscillating electric and magnetic field, thus the energy density for such electric field
(E) and magnetic field (B) is given as

And

i.e., the total stored energy can be given as

Poynting Theorum
 In electromagnetic theory Poynting theorem John Henry Poynting a British
physicist which is based on conservation of energy for an electromagnetic field.

 And using the Maxwell equation the given relation is derived in which the left side
shows instantaneous power dissipated in some volume dV also the first term
represents the rate at which stored energy in a volume decreases whereas the
second term represents the flow of energy.

Poynting Vector
From the above equation, we can see that the integral of E×H over any surface
provided the rate of energy flow through a certain amount of surface dS and its
cross product of E and H is termed as Poynting vector.

It states that the cross product of electric field vector (E) and magnetic field
vector (H) at any point is a measure of the rate of flow of electromagnetic
energy per unit area at that point that is

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Or, it can be written as,

As explained above the Poynting vector describes the magnitude and direction of the
flow of energy in electromagnetic waves.

Thus, the dimensions of both the Poynting vector and the electromagnetic power
density are the same, i.e. [M1 L-1 T-2]

The unit of the Poynting vector is watt/m2.

From the above equation, it is clear that E and B are mutually perpendicular, and also,
they are perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the wave.

Thus, the direction of the Poynting vector is along the direction of the propagation of
the electromagnetic wave.

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