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AntennaTutorialsAnalysisofWaveguides(Continued)TMzFields

MathematicalAnalysisofWaveguidesTMModes
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(TEFields)

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DeterminingthefieldsfortheTMz(TransverseMagnetictothezdirection)modesfollowsa
similarproceduretothatfortheTEzcase.Tobegin,we'llstartbydiscussingthemagnetic
vectorpotential,A.Thisisanonphysicalquantitythatisofteninusedantennatheoryto
simplifythemathematicsofMaxwell'sEquations.
Tounderstandthemagneticvectorpotential,notethatsincethemagneticfluxdensityBmust
alwaysbedivergenceless:

Ifavectorquantityisdivergenceless,thenitcanbeexpressedasthecurlofanothervector
quantity.Inmathnotation,thismeansthatBcanbewrittenas:

Inasourcefreeregion,itcanbeshownthatAmustsatisfythewaveequation:

Inaddition,theTMzfieldscanbefoundfromtheAzcomponentofthemagneticvector
potential,viathefollowingrelationships:

TosolveforAz(andhencedeterminetheEandHfields),wefollowthesameprocedureas
fortheTEzcase.Thatis,weuseseparationofvariablesandsolvethewaveequationforthez
componentofA,thenapplyboundaryconditionsthatforcethetangentialcomponentsoftheE
fieldstobezeroonthemetallicsurfaces.Performingthisprocedure,whichwillnotberepeated
here,weobtainthesolutionforAz:
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AntennaTutorialsAnalysisofWaveguides(Continued)TMzFields

[1]
ThecorrespondingTMzfieldsforwavespropagatinginthe+zdirectionare:

Intheabove,kisagainthewavenumber,andBmnisaconstant,whichdeterminesthe
amplitudeofthemnmode(afunctionofhowmuchpowerisappliedtothewaveguideatthat
frequency).
Beforediscussingthemodes,wemustnotethatTM0nandTMm0modescannotexistthatis,
mandnmustbeatleast1.Thereasoncomesfromequation[1]aboveifeithermornarezero,
thenAzisequaltozero,soallthefieldsderivedmustalsobezero.Hence,thelowestorder
modefortheTMcaseistheTM11mode.
ThesameprocedurescanbeappliedfromtheTEcasetodeterminethecutofffrequenciesfor
theTMmnmode:

NotethattheequationforthecutofffrequencyisthesamefortheTEandtheTMcase.Hence,
thisconfirmsthattheTE10modeisthedominantmodeforthiswaveguide.Wewillconclude
thissectionwiththesameXbandRectangularwaveguidetableasbefore,displayingthecutoff
frequenciesforvariousmodes,thistimeincludingTMmodes.
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AntennaTutorialsAnalysisofWaveguides(Continued)TMzFields

TableI.CutoffFrequencyforTEmnModesinanXbandRectangularWaveguide
Mode
TE10
TE20

6.56GHz
13.1GHz

TE01
TE11

14.8GHz
16.2GHz

TM11
TE30

16.2GHz
19.7GHz

TE21
TM21

19.8GHz
19.8GHz

TE02

29.5GHz

That'saboutallyouneedtoknowtoreallyunderstandtheTMmode.AsintheTEcase,ifthe
operatingfrequencyisbelowthecutofffrequency,thenthemodewilldecayexponentially.If
theoperatingfrequencyisabovethecutofffrequency,propagationwilloccurforthatmode.
Notethatthereisno(1/r)typedependencethatis,thefieldsdonotdieoffwithinawaveguide
whentheypropagate.

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