Introduction To Modern Planar Transmission Lines. Anand K. Verma
components. The tip of the electric vector (
(4.6.3)
4.6.2 Circular Polarization
The circular polarization, shown in Fig. (4.10b), is obtained for two orthogonal field components of equal magnitude, and phase in quadrature. So, to get the circular polarization, two electric field components oscillate at the same frequency and meet the following conditions:
Equal amplitude: The magnitudes of Ey and Ez are equal, i.e. |E0y| = |E0z| = E0.
Space quadrature: The Ey and Ez field components are normal to each other.
Time (phase) quadrature: The phase difference between the Ey and Ez field components are (φ = ± 90°), i.e. E0y = E0, and E0z = E0e±π/2 = ± j E0.
The phasor form of the E‐field vector of the circularly polarized waves, meeting the above conditions, could be written from equation (4.6.1a) as follows:
The ejωt time‐harmonic factor is suppressed in the above equations. The time‐domain forms of the circularly polarized waves, using the instantaneous
The handedness, i.e. the sense of rotation of the
(4.6.6)
In the case of the wave propagation in the negative x‐direction, i.e. the wave moves away from the observer standing on the positive x‐axis, the role of RHCP and LHCP gets interchanged. Further, the handedness of circular polarization can be reversed by applying 180° phase‐shift to either the y or z component of the
4.6.3 Elliptical Polarization
Two orthogonal field components, in the space quadrature, of unequal magnitude and arbitrary phase angle (φ) between them, generate the elliptical polarization, i.e. the resultant E‐field vector rotates in the plane of polarization such that its tip traces an elliptical path as shown in Fig. (4.10c). The instantaneous orthogonal E‐field components in the x = 0 plane are given below:
(4.6.7)
Using the above equation and identity
(4.6.8)
The semi‐major axis OA, the semi‐minor axis OB of the ellipse shown in Fig. (4.10c), and the axial ratio (AR) of the polarization ellipse are given below [B.9, B.29]:
The tilt angle θ of the polarization ellipse, i.e. inclination of the major axis OA with y‐axis is [B.9, B.29]:
(4.6.10)
For φ ≠ π/2, the polarization ellipse is inclined with respect to the y‐axis. The linear and circular polarizations are obtained as special cases from the elliptical polarization. For instance, for Ez(t) = 0 the wave is horizontally polarized in the y‐direction. For E0y = E0z = E0 and φ = ± π/2, the LHCP/RHCP wave is obtained as equation (4.6.9) is reduced to an equation of a circle with OA = OB. For the linear polarization, AR is infinity. However, for the circular polarization, AR is unity. In the case E0y = E0z = E0 and φ ≠ π/2, the wave is not circularly polarized and its AR is cotφ/2. For a practical circularly polarized antenna, the axial ratio is frequency‐dependent and its axial ratio bandwidth is defined as the frequency band over which AR ≤ 3dB.
4.6.4 Jones Matrix Description of Polarization States
The polarizing devices change the state of polarization. For instance, the polarizing devices could change the rotation of the linear