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Medium through which electromagnetic waves propagate
In optics, an optical medium is material through which light and other electromagnetic waves propagate. It is a form of transmission medium. The permittivity and permeability of the medium define how electromagnetic waves propagate in it.
The optical medium has an intrinsic impedance, given by
where E x {\displaystyle E_{x}} and H y {\displaystyle H_{y}} are the electric field and magnetic field, respectively. In a region with no electrical conductivity, the expression simplifies to:
For example, in free space the intrinsic impedance is called the characteristic impedance of vacuum, denoted Z0, and
Waves propagate through a medium with velocity c w = ν λ {\displaystyle c_{w}=\nu \lambda } , where ν {\displaystyle \nu } is the frequency and λ {\displaystyle \lambda } is the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves. This equation also may be put in the form
where ω {\displaystyle \omega } is the angular frequency of the wave and k {\displaystyle k} is the wavenumber of the wave. In electrical engineering, the symbol β {\displaystyle \beta } , called the phase constant, is often used instead of k {\displaystyle k} .
The propagation velocity of electromagnetic waves in free space, an idealized standard reference state (like absolute zero for temperature), is conventionally denoted by c0:[1]
For a general introduction, see Serway[2] For a discussion of synthetic media, see Joannopoulus.[3]
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