Paper 4, Section II, E
Consider a medium in which the electric displacement and magnetising field are linearly related to the electric and magnetic fields respectively with corresponding polarisation constants and ;
Write down Maxwell's equations for and in the absence of free charges and currents.
Consider EM waves of the form,
Find conditions on the electric and magnetic polarisation vectors and , wave-vector and angular frequency such that these fields satisfy Maxwell's equations for the medium described above. At what speed do the waves propagate?
Consider two media, filling the regions and in three dimensional space, and having two different values and of the electric polarisation constant. Suppose an electromagnetic wave is incident from the region resulting in a transmitted wave in the region and also a reflected wave for . The angles of incidence, reflection and transmission are denoted and respectively. By constructing a corresponding solution of Maxwell's equations, derive the law of reflection and Snell's law of refraction, where are the indices of refraction of the two media.
Consider the special case in which the electric polarisation vectors and of the incident, reflected and transmitted waves are all normal to the plane of incidence (i.e. the plane containing the corresponding wave-vectors). By imposing appropriate boundary conditions for and at , show that,