Indraprastha Institute of

Information Technology Delhi

Lecture 23

ECE230

Date: 04.04.2016

Plane Waves in Free Space and Good Conductors

Power and Poynting Vector

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Wave Propagation in Lossy Dielectrics

Wave propagating in z-direction and
Exs ( z ) E0 e z E0 e ( j ) z
having only x-component is given by:
Where:

1 1

2

1 1

2

Inserting the time factor yields: E ( z, t ) ReExs ( z )e jt a x Re E0e z e j (t z )a x

The solution for magnetic field is:

E0

is a complex quantity known as the

of the medium.

Where: H
e

H ( z , t ) Re H 0 e z e j (t z ) a y

/
1/4

2
1

tan 2

0 45

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ECE230

Wave Propagation in Lossy Dielectrics (contd.)

In terms of , the wave velocity and
wavelength are:

Furthermore, the ratio of the magnitude of conduction current density

to that of the displacement current density is:
J cs
J ds

Es
j E s

tan

is known as the
and is the
of the medium.

A medium is good
(lossless or perfect)
dielectric if is very
small ( ) or a
good conductor if is
large ( )

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Plane Waves in Lossless Dielectrics

In a lossless dielectrics, .
In such a scenario: 0, = 0 , = 0 .
Therefore:
0

Thus and are in time phase with

each other.

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Plane Waves in Free Space

In this case: = 0, = 0 , = 0 .

Therefore: 0 0 0
c

0 0

2
c

0
0
0

The fact that EM waves travel in free space with the speed of light is
significant.
It provides evidence that light is the manifestation of an EM wave.
We have:
0

0
120
0

The plots of and are shown below.

377

= 0+ cos()

Furthermore:
E E0 cos(t z )a x
H

E0

cos(t z )a y

= 0+ cos()

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Plane Waves in Free Space (contd.)

In general, if , and are unit
vectors along , and the ak a E a H ak a H a E a E a H ak
direction of propagation, then:
Both and fields are everywhere normal to the direction of wave
propagation.
It means that the fields lie in a plane that is transverse or orthogonal to
the direction of propagation.
They form an EM wave that has no electric or magnetic field components
along the direction of propagation such a wave is called transverse
electromagnetic (TEM) wave.
A combination of and is called a uniform plane wave because fields
have same magnitude throughout any transverse plane.
The direction in which the electric field points is the polarization of a TEM
wave Essentially, polarization of a uniform plane wave describes the
locus traced by the tip of the vector (in the plane orthogonal to the
direction of propagation) at a given point in space as a function of time.

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Plane Waves in Free Space (contd.)

E ( z , t ) E0 e z cos(t z )a x

It is polarized in x-direction

= 0+ cos()

It illustrates a uniform plane wave

= 0+ cos()

In practice, a uniform plane wave cant exist because it stretches to infinity

and would represent an infinite energy however these waves are
characteristically simple and fundamentally important.
These serve as approximations for practical waves such as those from
radio antenna at distances sufficiently far from radiating sources.
The on-going discussion are applicable for any other isotropic medium.

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Plane Waves in Good Conductors

In a good conductor, displacement current is negligible in comparison to
conduction current ( ) Because, for a
perfect or good conductor, .
Although this inequality is frequency dependent, most good conductors
(such as copper and aluminum) have conductivities on the order of
107 / and negligible polarization such that we never encounter the
frequencies at which the displacement current becomes comparable to
the conduction current.
For a good conductor: = , = 0 , = 0 .

Therefore:

2
u

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Plane Waves in Good Conductors (contd.)

Furthermore:

If:

z
0

EE e

cos(t z )a x

45

Thus leads by 45

E0

Then: H

The amplitude of or is
attenuated by the factor as
it travels along the medium.
The rate of attenuation in a good
conductor is characterized by
distance called
a distance over which plane
wave is attenuated by a factor
1 (about 37% of the original
value) in a good conductor.

()
0+

e z cos(t z 45)a y

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Plane Waves in Good Conductors (contd.)

is a measure of the
depth to which an EM wave E0 e E0 e1
can penetrate the medium.

Valid for any

material
medium

1
f

For a partially conducting medium, the skin depth can be

considerably large.
For a good conductor:

2e j /4

1 j

1
For good conductors, = = , therefore: E E0e z / cos(t z )a x

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Plane Waves in Good Conductors (contd.)

z
E E0 e z / cos(t )a x

It shows that () is the measure of exponential

damping the wave experiences as it travels through the
conductor.
0+

66.1 /

f (mm) For Copper !

0.3680+

It demonstrates that the fields

dampen and will hardly propagate
through good conductors

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Example 1
Uniform plane wave ( = 1) at an air/copper interface.

Determine 1 , 2 , 1 , 2 , 1 , 2 , 1 , 2 .
1 = 0,

1 =

2 = 2 =

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Example 1 (contd.)
In the air,

c 3 108 m / s

c 3 108
1
300m
f
106

2 106
1
0.0209rad / m
8
c
3 10

In the copper,

at 1 MHZ:
2 2

15.2 10 Np / m
3

1
1
0.066

f 0
f
f 4 107 5.8 107

0.066mm
2

2 0.415mm

u2 2 f 415m / s

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Example 2
A plane wave = 0 cos( ) is incident on a good conductor at
0. Find the current density in the conductor.
Since, = , the wave equation changes to:
Furthermore, the incident has
2
d
2
only an x-component that varies
J

J sx 0
2 sx
with . Therefore, = , dz
and:

2 J s 2 J s 0

The
solution is:
J sx Ae z Be z

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Example 2 (contd.)
B is zero considering that wave is propagating in + .
1

Furthermore, in a good conductor so that = = . Therefore,

j 1 j

Therefore:

J sx Ae z (1 j )/

1 j

J sx J sx 0 e z (1 j )/

Where, (0) is the current

density on the conductor surface.
(0)

This depicts the

scenario

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Example 3
Given the current density of previous problem = (0) (1+)/ , find
the magnitude of total current through a strip of the conductor of infinite
depth along and width along .
w

I s J sx dydz

I s J sx (0) dy e z (1 j )/ dz

0 0

Is

J sx (0) w
1 j

Is

(0)

J sx (0) w
2

It actually resembles a uniform current density (0) flowing

through a thin surface width and depth . As decays
exponentially with depth , a conductor of finite thickness can be
considered electrically equivalent to one of infinite depth as long as
exceeds a few skin depth ().

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Example 4
In the previous example, what is the voltage across a length at the
surface. What is the impedance of the conductor in consideration?

(0)

Vs E0l

J sx (0)

Vs J sx (0)
1 j

l
Is

J sx (0) w

Vs 1 j l

I s w

Z Zs

is surface impedance and the real part of this is called ac resistance.

l
w

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Plane Waves in Good Conductors (contd.)

Electromagnetic Shielding
The previous example shows that we may enclose a volume with a thin layer
of good conductor to act as an electromagnetic shield. Depending on the
application, the electromagnetic shield may be necessary to prevent waves
radiating out of the shielded volume or to prevent waves from penetrating
into the shielded volume.

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Plane Waves in Good Conductors (contd.)

Given a plane wave incident on a highly-conducting surface, the electric
field (and thus the current density) is found to be concentrated at the
surface of the conductor.
The same phenomenon occurs for a current carrying conductor such as a
wire.
The effect is frequency dependent, just as it is in the incident plane wave
example.
This phenomenon is known as the .
Therefore, one can say, The process whereby the field intensity in a
conductor rapidly decreases is called .
is the tendency of the charges to migrate from the bulk of
the conducting material to the surface, resulting in higher resistances (for
ac!)
The fields and associated currents are confined to a very thin layer
( ) of the conductor surface.

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Plane Waves in Good Conductors (contd.)

For a wire of radius , it is a
good approximation at high
frequencies to assume that all
of the current flows in the
circular ring of thickness .
is used to advantage in many applications.
For example, because the in silver is very small, the difference
in performance between a pure silver and silver-plated brass component is
negligible, so silver plating is often used to reduce the material cost of
waveguide components.
Furthermore, hollow tubular conductors are used instead of solid
conductors in outdoor television antennas.

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Plane Waves in Good Conductors (contd.)

The is useful in calculating the ac resistance.

The resistance =
is called the dc resistance .

The is the real part of .

Rs

Resistance of a unit width and unit

length of the conductor having crosssectional area 1 .

l
Rl
Therefore, for a given width and length , the ac
Rac
s
resistance is:
w
w
l

For a conductor
wire of radius :

Rac w 2 a
a

l
l
Rdc
2
S
a 2

Since, at high
frequencies, is far greater
than . In general, the ratio
of the ac and dc resistance
starts at 1.0 for dc and very
low frequencies and increases
as the frequency increases.

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Power and Poynting Vector

For any wave with an electric field and magnetic field , the direction
of wave propagation is also the direction of power per unit area (or
power density) carried by the wave. It is represented by
.
2
S EH

Instantaneous Poynting Vector

direction and density of power
flow at a point

The total power flowing through this

aperture is:
=

. =

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Power and Poynting Vector (contd.)

Except for the fact that units of are per unit
area, the is the vector
analogue of the scalar expression for the
instantaneous power (, ) flowing through a
transmission line:

P( z , t ) v( z , t )i ( z , t )

From LC we
can recall

1
Pav ( z ) Re Vs ( z ) I s* ( z )
2

In a similar manner, power density

(/2 ) associated with a time-harmonic
EM field in terms of and phasors is:

P ave

*
1
Re E s H s

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Example 5
Determine the expressions for the time-average power density for an EM
plane wave in terms of electric field only and magnetic field only; given (a)
a lossy medium, (b) a lossless medium.
(a)
P ave

*
1
Re E s H s

Es H s

P ave

Es Es*
ak
Re
j
2
e

P ave

1
Re Es H s*ak
2

P ave

P ave

ak
Re Es H s*
2

Es*
H *
j

e
*
s

Es Es*
ak
Re
j
2
e

Es*

Es
cos ak

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Example 5 (contd.)

P ave

(b)

ak
j
Re H s e H s*
2

P ave

EE
ak
Re
2
e

*
s s
j

Hs
cos ak

Lossless Medium , = 0
P ave

Es

ak

P ave

Hs
2

ak