Chapter 12

Plane Wave Reflection and Dispersion

 Plane Wave Reflections

• In this chapter, we are going to discuss issues

related to plane wave reflections from
boundaries between two different materials

• We will find that most of the concepts are

analogous to what we learned about reflections
and transmission in transmission lines

2
Reflection with Normal Incidence
incident wave transmitted wave
+
Exs1 (z) = Exs10
+
e jkz +
Exs2 (z) = Exs20
+
e jkz
1 1 +
+
Hys1 (z) = +
Exs10 e jkz
Hys2 (z) = Exs20 e jkz
+
1 2

reflected wave
Exs1 (z) = Exs10 ejkz the reflected wave results from the
1 requirement to satisfy the boundary
Hys1 (z) = Exs10 ejkz
1 conditions:

Exs1 (z = 0) = Exs2 (z = 0)
Hys1 (z = 0) = Hys2 (z = 0)
3
 Boundary Conditions
The boundary conditions: Exs1 (z = 0) = Exs2 (z = 0)
Hys1 (z = 0) = Hys2 (z = 0)

+
Ex10 + Ex10 = Ex20
+

2 1
Ex10 = Ex10
+

1 1 1 2 + 1
+
Ex10 Ex10 = +
Ex20
1 1 2

Ex10 2 1 2⌘2
implies that = + = = | |e
j
and ⌧ =1+ =
Ex10 2+ 1 ⌘1 + ⌘2

the transmitted electric field may be larger,

4 but the magnetic field will be smaller
Transmitted/Reflected Power Density

• We can use the same methodology to find the

reflected and transmitted power as we did for
transmission lines.

• We find that:
⇥ Sreflected ⇥ = | |2 Sincident ⇥
1 1
Sincident ⇥ = Re + 2
|Ex10 |
2 1
⇥Stransmitted ⇤ = (1 | |2 ) ⇥Sincident ⇤

5
 Standing EM Waves

http://rt210.sl.psu.edu/phys_anim/EM/indexer_EM.html
6
 Standing Wave Ratio
• We can apply the same formulation to the
standing wave ratio of EM waves as we did for
transmission lines; i.e.,

1+| |
SWR = s =
1 | |

The SWR can be used to determine the properties

of a medium in the same way as the VSWR was
used to determine the load
7
Plane Wave Propagation in General Directions

• In order to describe plane wave propagation in general directions we

need to modify our expression for electric field to
⇤ s = E0 e
E j(kx x+kz z)
we can express the exponent as a dot product

⇧k · ⇧r = kx x + kz z
where the wavevector is

⇤k = kx âx + kz âz
and
⇧r = xâx + zâz
therefore

⇤ s = E0 e j⇧
k·⇧
r
E
8
Plane Wave Propagation in General Directions

the wavelength and wavenumber are related by

2⇥ 2⇥
= =
k kx2 + ky2

vp = =
k kx2 + ky2

2⇥
x = vpx =
kx kx
9
 Reflection at Oblique Incidence
Transverse Magnetic (TM) Transverse Electric (TE)

1 = 1

angle of incidence refraction

plane of incidence

n
k
parallel polarization perpendicular polarization
p-polarized; E parallel to plane s-polarized; E perpendicular to
10
of incidence plane of incidence
 Index of Refraction
• is the ratio of the velocity of light in a vacuum to
the velocity of light in a particular medium

• In our case a dielectric

c
n= = r
vp

n2 > n1
11
 Snell’s Law
the tangential component of the incident and reflected electric
field intensity along the interface must equal the tangential
electric field intensity of the transmitted wave [See Section 5.8]
+ + j~
k1+ ·~
r +
Ezs1 = Ez10 e = E10 cos ✓1 e jk1 (x cos(✓1 )+z sin(✓1 ))
j~
k1 ·~
r
Ezs1 = Ez10 e = E10 cos ✓1 ejk1 (x cos(✓1 ) z sin(✓1 ))
j~
k2 ·~
r jk2 (x cos(✓2 )+z sin(✓2 ))
Ezs2 = Ez20 e = E20 cos ✓2 e
and at x=0 constant everywhere at interface
+
Ezs1 + Ezs1 = Ezs2
which gives
+ jk1 z sin(✓1 ) jk1 z sin(✓1 ) jk2 z sin(✓2 )
Ez10 cos ✓1 e + Ez10 cos ✓1 e = Ez20 cos ✓2 e
this has to hold for any value of z and the only thing that is changing with z is the phase
term in the exponents, therefore all the phase terms must be equal for all z or

k1 sin( 1 ) = k2 sin( 2 )
 Snell’s Law of Refraction
• Describes the relationship between the angle of
incidence and the angle of refraction

• Can be found by matching the tangential electric field

intensity at the boundary between the two dielectrics

k1 sin( 1 ) = k2 sin( 2 )
or knowing that k=n
c
⇥
n1 sin( 1 ) = n2 sin( 2 ) 2 = sin 1 n1
n2
sin( 1 )
13
 Reflection/Transmission
p-polarized wave, the magnetic field is tangential to the p-polarized s-polarized
boundary. Our boundary conditions require that
+
E10 cos( 1 ) + E10 cos( 1 ) = E20
+
cos( 2 )
we also know that
+
E10 cos(⇥1 ) E10 cos(⇥1 ) +
E20 cos(⇥2 )
=
1 1 2

which can be solved to show that

cos(⇥2 )
2 1 cos(⇥1 ) 2 2 cos(⇥1 )
= also ⇤=
2 cos(⇥2 ) + 1 cos(⇥1 ) 2 cos(⇥2 ) + 1 cos(⇥1 )

which implies that the amount of reflected wave depends on the angle.

14
 Reflection / Transmission at Oblique
Incidence
Transverse Electric (TE) Transverse Magnetic (TM)
s-polarized p-polarized

Reflection Coefficient Reflection Coefficient

2 cos(⇥1 ) 1 cos(⇥2 ) 2 cos(⇥2 ) 1 cos(⇥1 )

= =
2 cos(⇥1 ) + 1 cos(⇥2 ) 2 cos(⇥2 ) + 1 cos(⇥1 )

Transmission Coefficient Transmission Coefficient

2 2 cos(⇥1 ) 2 2 cos(⇥1 )
⇤= ⇤=
2 cos(⇥1 ) + 1 cos(⇥2 ) 2 cos(⇥2 ) + 1 cos(⇥1 )

15
 Total Reflection
• There are angles at which the entire wave is
reflected from the boundary, this condition is
called total reflection. we know that (Snell’s Law)
n2
sin( 1 ) = sin( 2 )
n1
for total reflection we require that

2 90o
therefore, the critical angle will be
n2
sin( c ) =
n1
the condition for total reflection

1 > c
16
Refracted light
from outside

0-3o 3-10o 10-45o 45-90o

light in these bands is from
these angles of incidence

Totally reflected
light from undersea
90 Degree Beam Steering Prism

In order to ensure that we have total

reflection off of the back surface, the index
of refraction for the glass must be

n2 ⇥
n1 = 2 = 1.41
sin( /4)

18
 Total Internal Reflection
• Total reflection is an important property used in
fibre optic systems

19
 Angular Dispersion
• Angular dispersion results from frequency
dependant refractive index

c
n= = r
vp

here we see that n increases with frequency.

Note: n is inversely proportional to the
propagation velocity 20
Diffraction