Wave Polarization
A pure right-handed circularly polarized wave propagating along the
-axis takes the form
In terms of complex amplitudes, this becomes
|
(5.58) |
Similarly, a left-handed circularly polarized wave is characterized by
|
(5.59) |
The polarization of the transverse electric field is obtained from the
middle line of Equation (5.42):
|
(5.60) |
For the case of parallel propagation, with , the previous formula
yields
. Similarly, for the case of parallel propagation,
with , we obtain
. Thus, it is clear that
the roots and in Equations (5.51)–(5.53) correspond to
right- and left-handed circularly polarized waves, respectively.