Open AccessRotating scale-invariant electromagnetic fields
Author(s) -
Jani Tervo,
Jari Turunen
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.9.000009
Subject(s) - physics , electromagnetic field , invariant (physics) , polarization (electrochemistry) , electromagnetic radiation , scalar field , scalar (mathematics) , near and far field , optics , classical mechanics , optical field , rotation (mathematics) , quantum mechanics , geometry , mathematics , chemistry
The concept of scalar fields with uniformly rotating intensity distributions and propagation-invariant radial scales is extended to the case of electromagnetic fields with rotating but otherwise propagation-invariant states of polarization. It is shown that the conditions for field rotation are different for scalar and electromagnetic fields and that the electromagentic analysis brings in new aspects such as the possibility that different components of a rotating electromagnetic field can rotate in opposite directions.