$4, Plane-wave propagation From a theoretical perspective, the passage of electromagnetic signals through a complex medium is generally a complicated issue — and perhaps it is best broached by considering the propagation of plane waves. Although plane waves themselves are idealizations, being of limitless spatial and temporal extents and possessing infinite energy, they can provide a reasonable understanding of fields far away from their sources. Furthermore, realistic signals may be represented as superpositions of plane waves. Descriptions of plane-wave propagation in isotropic dielectric mediums, as well as in certain relatively simple, anisotropic dielectric mediums, are widely available in the literature (Born and Wolf [1980], Chen [1983], Nye [1985], Kong, [1986]. This is especially true when the effects of dissipation are neglected, the topic then ofien coming under the heading of ‘crystal optics’. In this section, a sur- vey of plane-wave solutions of the Maxwell curl postulates in anisotropic and bianisotropic mediums, including dissipative and nonhomogeneous mediums, is presented, We begin with a general description of plane waves. Next, as a pre- cursor to the later subsections on anisotropic and bianisotropic mediums, a brief outline of plane-wave propagation in isotropic mediums is provided. Thereafter, we discuss the modes of uniform plane-wave propagation which are supported by various anisotropic and bianisotropic mediums, including nonhomogeneous mediums. Plane-wave propagation in isotropic mediums is independent of di- rection of propagation, which contrasts sharply with plane-wave propagation in anisotropic and bianisotropic mediums4.1. Uniform and non-uniform plane waves Let us recall from § 2 that the electric and magnetic field phasors E(r, «) and H(r, «), respectively, can be conveniently combined in the 6-vector field phasor F(r, ) defined in eq, (2.15). Electromagnetic plane waves may be represented ‘mathematically by field phasors of the form F(r, 0) = Fo(o) expli(k +r — ot), 1) independent of r. The wavevector k € C*, in general, and where Fy(w) € C may be expressed as k=krky +ikrk,, (4.2) wherein the scalars kg, € Rand the unit vectors & g » € R¥. Parenthetically, note that although & varies with «, for convenience we do not express this dependence explicitly. In light of eq. (4.2), the field phasor (4.1) may be written as FE, ©) = Ey(w) exp(—kik; +r) expfi(keky +r —or)] 43) On planes in R? specified by +r = constant, (44) We see from eq, (4.3) that F(r, ) has constant phase. In other words, a propagat- ing plane of constant phase is described by the field phasor (4.1). The planes of constant phase propagate in the direction of k » with velocity (4.5) is called the phase velocity, and its magnitude is the phase speed. Plane waves may be classified as either uniform or nonuniform as follows © Ik = +6, then the wavevector k may be stated as kk, 46)with the complex-valued wavenumber k = kg + iky and the real-valued unit vector & = &q. Thus, on planes of constant £ + r, F(x, w) has both constant phase and constant amplitude. Accordingly, these plane waves are known as uniform plane waves. Uniform plane waves also arise in the nondissipative sce- nario characterized by ky = 0. oe Wk, 4 +k, and ky #0, then the amplitude of F(r, w) is generally not uni- form on planes of constant kg + r. Accordingly, these plane waves are known as nonuniform plane waves. The wavevector & has inherently complex-valued components for non-uniform plane waves, whereas for uniform plane waves k may have either complex- or real-valued components. Uniform plane waves with real-valued k propagate with- out attenuation. For practical applications, uniform plane waves are encountered much more often than nonuniform plane waves. For this reason, we concentrate ‘on uniform plane waves in the remainder of this section.