DOING PHYSICS WITH PYTHON

COMPUTATIONAL OPTICS 

MONOCHROMATIC PLANE WAVE ANIMATION

 

Ian Cooper

matlabvisualphysics@gmail.com

 

DOWNLOAD DIRECTORY FOR PYTHON CODES

GitHub

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PYTHON CODES    op001.py

 

WAVE EQUATIONS

We will consider a mathematical representation of polarized plane harmonic electromagnetic waves propagating in the z direction with the oscillation of the electric field in the x direction and the magnetic field oscillating in the y direction. The wavefunction u(z, t) is used for the oscillations of the electric field and is given by

(1)                 

 

A      amplitude

k      propagation constant  [m-1]

      wavelength  [m]    

     angular frequency  [rad.s-1]

f      frequency  [Hz]

T      period  [s]

c      speed of light in a vacuum  [m.s-1]

     phase [rad]    wave propagates in the + z direction

     phase [rad]    wave propagates in the - z direction

 

             

 

 

The Python code op001.py is used to visualize the wavefunction.

 

Fig. 1.   The variation of the wavefunction as function of displacement z and time t. The wavefunction repeats itself every 500 nm and every 1.67 fs and so the wavelength is nm and period is T = 1.67 fm.               op001.py

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 2.  Animation of the plane wave  .

     wave propagates in the + z direction

                                                                                                           wave propagates in the - z direction

The wave travels one wavelength in a time interval of one period   .