Dipole - Dipole Radiation

Dipole Radiation

See also: Dipole antenna

In addition to dipoles in electrostatics, it is also common to consider an electric or magnetic dipole that is oscillating in time.

In particular, a harmonically oscillating electric dipole is described by a dipole moment of the form

where ω is the angular frequency. In vacuum, this produces fields:

\mathbf{E} = \frac{1}{4\pi\varepsilon_0} \left\{ \frac{\omega^2}{c^2 r} ( \hat{\mathbf{r}} \times \mathbf{p} ) \times \hat{\mathbf{r}} + \left( \frac{1}{r^3} - \frac{i\omega}{cr^2} \right) \left \right\} e^{i\omega r/c}

Far away (for ), the fields approach the limiting form of a radiating spherical wave:

which produces a total time-average radiated power P given by

This power is not distributed isotropically, but is rather concentrated around the directions lying perpendicular to the dipole moment. Usually such equations are described by spherical harmonics, but they look very different. A circular polarized dipole is described as a superposition of two linear dipoles.

Read more about this topic:  Dipole

Famous quotes containing the word radiation:

    “There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Even the bomb merely releases energy that nature has put there. Nuclear war would be just a spark in the grandeur of space. Nor can radiation “alter” nature: she will absorb it all. After the bomb, nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin her game again.”
    —Camille Paglia (b. 1947)