Decomposition of electromagnetic sources in axially chiral uniaxial anisotropic media

Abstract

Electromagnetic sources in axially chiral uniaxially anisotropic media are decomposed into two parts. The resulting field can also be separated into two components, each with constant axial impedence (i.e. ratio of axial electric field to axial magnetic field). It is seen that, for certain combinations of the electric and magnetic fields due to the decomposed sources, the governing differential equations are reduced from the fourth order to the second order and can be solved through affine transformations. The TE/TM decomposition theory, previously derived for simple isotropic and nonchiral uniaxial media, is seen to be a special case of the present theory, corresponding to zero and infinite axial impedances. As a consequence, it is demonstrated that the decomposed fields with constant axial impedance see the original axially chiral uniaxial medium as two nonchiral uniaxial media. These two media can be characterized as affine-isotropic because they can be transformed to isotropic media through certain uniaxial affine transformations.