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    7 views4 pages

    Faraday Rotation

    Uploaded by

    Shivanshu Trivedi
    assa

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    ree20%6 Faraday ration Next] Up] Previous Next: Propagation in a conductor Up: romagnetic radiation Previous: Dielectric constant of a Faraday rotation Consider a high frequency electromagnetic wave propagating, along the z-axis, through a plasma with a longitudinal equilibrium magnetic field, B = By %, The equation of motion of an individual electron making up the plasma takes the form dv m. =~ (B+ Byv x2), (1166) where the first term on the right-hand side is due to the wave electric field, and the second to the equilibrium magnetic field. (As usual, we can neglect the wave magnetic field, provided that the electron motion remains non-relativistic.) Of course, v = dr/dé, where r is the electron displacement from its equilibrium position. Suppose that all perturbed quantities vary with time like exp(—iw t), where w is the wave frequency. It follows that mw x=e(E,—iw Boy), (167) muy = e(E, +iw By). (168) It is helpful to define St = riiy, (1169) Bs = E,+ik€,. (1170) Using these new variables, Eqs. (1167) and (1168) can be rewritten mw" sz = e (Ex Fw Byss), a7 which can be solved to give chs (1172) mut) where 2 = € By/m, is the so-called cyclotron frequency (i.e., the characteristic gyration frequency of free electrons in the equilibrium magnetic field--see Sect. 3.7). hp:farsido ph toxas.edutoaching/omloctresinode 01m 4 ree20%6 Faraday ration In terms of sx, the electron displacement can be written rosette ys elle | (173) where (&Fiy). (74) Likewise, in terms of Ez, the wave electric field takes the form B= Eye e, 4B elie, av7s) Obviously, the actual displacement and electric field are the real parts of the above expressions. It follows from Eq. (L175) that E}, corresponds to a constant amplitude electric field which rotates anti-clockwise in the x-y plane (looking down the 2-axis) as the wave propagates in the +2- direction, whereas E_ corresponds to a constant amplitude electric field which rotates clockwise. The former type of wave is termed right-hand circularly polarized, whereas the latter is termed lefi- hand circularly polarized, Note also that s4 and s_ correspond to circular electron motion in opposite senses. With these insights, we conclude that Eq. (1172) indicates that individual electrons in the plasma have a slightly different response to right- and left-hand circularly polarized waves in the presence of a longitudinal magnetic field, Following the analysis of Sect. 9.7, we can deduce from Eq. (1172) that the dielectric constant of the plasma for right- and left-hand circularly polarized waves is e,=1-—-? _ (1176) respectively. Hence, according to Eq. (1154), the dispersion relation for right- and left-hand circularly polarized waves becomes 22 ws kee =u? |1-—=— (77, +6 “| ween): , respectively. In the limit w >> w,, £2, we obtain ka ~ kt Ak, (1178) hp:farsido ph toxas.edutoaching/omloctresinode 01m 24 ree20%6 Faraday ration where k = w [1 — (1/2) w2/w*]/cand Ak = (1/2) (w2/w) 2/c. In other words, in a 'p magnetized plasma, right- and left-hand circularly polarized waves of the same frequency have slightly different wave-numbers Let us now consider the propagation of a linearly polarized electromagnetic wave through the plasma. Such a wave can be constructed via a superposition of right- and left-hand circularly polarized waves of equal amplitudes. So, the wave electric field can be written B= Bee, pele], (1179) It can easily be seen that at 2 = O the wave electric field is aligned along the x-axis. If right- and left-hand circularly polarized waves of the same frequency have the same wave-number (i.e, if ky = k_) then the wave electric field will continue to be aligned along the x-axis as the wave propagates in the +z-direction: i.e., we will have a standard lincarly polarized wave. However, we have just demonstrated that, in the presence of a longitudinal magnetic field, the wave-numbers ky and k_ are slightly different. What effect does this have on the polarization of the wave? Taking the real part of Eq. (1179), and making use of Eq. (1178), and some standard trigonometrical identities, we obtain E = Bo[cos(k z — wt) cos(Ak z), cos(k 2 — wt) sin(Ak z), 0}. (1180) The polarization angle of the wave (which is a convenient measure of its plane of polarization) is given by y= tan "(B,/B,) = Akz. aiisi) Thus, we conclude that in the presence of a longitudinal magnetic field the polarization angle rotates as as the wave propagates through the plasma. This effect is known as Faraday rotation. It is clear, from the above expression, that the rate of advance of the polarization angle with distance travelled by the wave is given by w22 en Bo “Qutc Zemec wt

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