Abstract

The electric and magnetic components of an electromagnetic wave in free space are believed by many to be perpendicular to each other. We outline a procedure by which electromagnetic potentials are constructed, and we derive free-space nonperpendicular electric–magnetic fields from these potentials. We show, for example, that in free-space Bessel-related fields, at a small region near the origin, the angle between these components spans a range of 7°–173°, that is, they are far from being perpendicular. This can be contrasted with plane waves, where, following the same procedure, we verify that the electric field strength ($\mathit{E}(x,y,z,t)$) and the magnetic flux density ($\mathit{B}(x,y,z,t)$) are indeed perpendicular to each other and to the direction of propagation.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

Higher-order corrections to the electric field vector of a Gaussian beam

Hyo-Chang Kim and Yeon H. Lee
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 16(9) 2232-2238 (1999)

Vectorial spectral analysis of the nonstationary electromagnetic field

Z. Bouchal, J. Bajer, and M. Bertolotti
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 15(8) 2172-2181 (1998)

Mathematics of vectorial Gaussian beams

Uri Levy, Yaron Silberberg, and Nir Davidson
Adv. Opt. Photon. 11(4) 828-891 (2019)

Field-only surface integral equations: scattering from a perfect electric conductor

Qiang Sun, Evert Klaseboer, Alex J. Yuffa, and Derek Y. C. Chan
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 37(2) 276-283 (2020)

Tracking nanoscale electric and magnetic singularities through three-dimensional space

Nir Rotenberg, Boris le Feber, Taco D. Visser, and L. Kuipers
Optica 2(6) 540-546 (2015)