Paper 4, Section II, E

Electrodynamics | Part II, 2016

(a) A uniform, isotropic dielectric medium occupies the half-space z>0z>0. The region z<0z<0 is in vacuum. State the boundary conditions that should be imposed on E,D,B\mathbf{E}, \mathbf{D}, \mathbf{B} and H\mathbf{H} at z=0z=0.

(b) A linearly polarized electromagnetic plane wave, with magnetic field in the (x,y)(x, y)-plane, is incident on the dielectric from z<0z<0. The wavevector k\mathbf{k} makes an acute angle θI\theta_{I} to the normal z^\hat{\mathbf{z}}. If the dielectric has frequency-independent relative permittivity ϵr\epsilon_{r}, show that the fraction of the incident power that is reflected is

R=(ncosθIcosθTncosθI+cosθT)2\mathcal{R}=\left(\frac{n \cos \theta_{I}-\cos \theta_{T}}{n \cos \theta_{I}+\cos \theta_{T}}\right)^{2}

where n=ϵrn=\sqrt{\epsilon_{r}}, and the angle θT\theta_{T} should be specified. [You should ignore any magnetic response of the dielectric.]

(c) Now suppose that the dielectric moves at speed βc\beta c along the xx-axis, the incident angle θI=0\theta_{I}=0, and the magnetic field of the incident radiation is along the yy-direction. Show that the reflected radiation propagates normal to the surface z=0z=0, has the same frequency as the incident radiation, and has magnetic field also along the yy-direction. [Hint: You may assume that under a standard Lorentz boost with speed v=βcv=\beta c along the xx-direction, the electric and magnetic field components transform as

(ExEyEz)=(Exγ(EyvBz)γ(Ez+vBy)) and (BxByBz)=(Bxγ(By+vEz/c2)γ(BzvEy/c2))\left(\begin{array}{c} E_{x}^{\prime} \\ E_{y}^{\prime} \\ E_{z}^{\prime} \end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{c} E_{x} \\ \gamma\left(E_{y}-v B_{z}\right) \\ \gamma\left(E_{z}+v B_{y}\right) \end{array}\right) \quad \text { and } \quad\left(\begin{array}{c} B_{x}^{\prime} \\ B_{y}^{\prime} \\ B_{z}^{\prime} \end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{c} B_{x} \\ \gamma\left(B_{y}+v E_{z} / c^{2}\right) \\ \gamma\left(B_{z}-v E_{y} / c^{2}\right) \end{array}\right)

where γ=(1β2)1/2\gamma=\left(1-\beta^{2}\right)^{-1 / 2}.]

(d) Show that the fraction of the incident power reflected from the moving dielectric

Rβ=(n/γ1β2/n2n/γ+1β2/n2)2\mathcal{R}_{\beta}=\left(\frac{n / \gamma-\sqrt{1-\beta^{2} / n^{2}}}{n / \gamma+\sqrt{1-\beta^{2} / n^{2}}}\right)^{2}

Typos? Please submit corrections to this page on GitHub.