FIELD DECOMPOSITION IN SPECIAL GYROTROPIC MEDIA

The uniaxial medium is a special case of the gyrotropic anisotropic me dium, and it is known that the plane eigenwaves are either TE or TM po larized with respect to the axis of the medium, independent of the dir ection of propagation of the wave. It is shown that there exist two ot her special cases of the gyrotropic medium with a similar polarization property, which allows a characterization of the two plane eigenwaves , independent of the direction of propagation. The plane eigenwaves in these media are labeled TRE and TLM (transverse right- or left-handed electric or magnetic). In the other media they are labeled TLE and TR M. More generally, the polarization properties apply for fields that c an be Fourier expanded in terms of plane waves, which lends to decompo sition of fields in terms of their polarization. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.