Visualization of electric and magnetic fields in rectangular waveguides

Waveguides are devices that allow the propagation of directional electric magnetic waves. Guided waves occur when the wave equation is satisfied considering the boundary conditions in the waveguide. Besides its practical issue, studying electric and magnetic fields is highly relevant in electromagnetism and microwave device courses. In this article, we present and provide a numeric code for an animated visualization of the electromagnetic waves in a rectangular wave guide. For this, the waveguide propagation equations for TE and TM mode are reviewed. This code, in Matlab^®, allows the user to select wave guide dimensions, wave and mode type, view type and operation frequency. An example for the ${\text{TE}}_{10}$ and ${\text{TM}}_{21}$ wave modes propagating through the commercial WR-90 waveguide is presented. This program is a highly relevant open-source educational object when it comes to learning electromagnetism.

Keywords:
Rectangular Wave Guide; Visualization of Electric and Magnetic Field; Electric and Magnetic Field