ANTENNAS 1

HERTZ POTENTIALS APPLIED TO A

FABRY-PEROT ANTENNA.
Gabriela Uquillas
Escuela de Ingeniera Electr onica en Telecomunicaciones y Redes, Escuela Superior Polit ecnica de Chimborazo,
Riobamba, Ecuador.
Email: gabbyuquillas13@gmail.com
AbstractMaxwells equations are the basis of Electromag-
netism, and they help to nd important parameters of the
antennas. In practice, electric signals need to be transmitted
from a transmitter to a receiver antenna, and not as electrical
signals but as electric and magnetic elds. If the sources are
known, it is relatively easy to nd electrical and magnetic elds,
but if radiated elds are specied we require to determine the
sources. However, there are a method to get those values, and
it is common to introduce Hertz potentials, known as auxiliary
potentials, because they are useful when Maxwells equations
need to be solved. In this paper, Hertz potentials are deduced by
means of mathematical procedures, and they can be applied to a
Fabry-Perot antenna because in its operation a magnetic current
can be found.
Index TermsHertz Potentials, Fabry-Perot antenna, Auxiliary
potentials, cavities.
I. INTRODUCTION
An antenna is a device designed to transmit or receive
electromagnetic energy, matching these sources of energy
and the space [1]. Therefore, its important to know how
the electrical signals are processed to be transmitted from
an antenna to other, for this purpose Maxwells equations
are proposed, and to give them a solution it is common
to introduce auxiliary functions, known as vector potentials,
which try to symmetrize Maxwells expressions. Basically the
most known vectors potentials are

A and

F but another pair is
Hertz potentials: electric and magnetic potentials,
e
and
m
,
respectively.
Heinrich Hertz proposed his potentials to represent graphically
the lines of electric eld, and from this, he described the for-
mation of the electromagnetic waves, as a result, Magnetic and
Electric elds can be expressed in terms of Hertz potentials
(
e
and
m
), so, it is necessary to deduce how these potentials
are introduced into Maxwells equations, and the solution is
presented in this paper.
The objective is to facilitate the transition of the signals,
from electrical sources to electromagnetic elds, there are two
methods to achieve it, the rst one is nding the elds directly
from the sources (

J and

M) but it is not much simple, hence,
the most efcient method is by using auxiliary potentials, as
it will be detailed.
II. A METALLIC FABRY-PEROT ANTENNA
A Fabry-Perot interferometer is a linear optical resonator
which consists of two highly reecting mirrors forming a
Fig. 1. A Fabry-Perot inferferometer or resonator.
Fig. 2. A directive antenna based in Fabry-Perot cavities where the black
lines delimit the region lled with foam.
standing-wave resonator, as the gure 1 shows. From a theo-
retical viewpoint, plane-plane optical resonators are special in
the sense that their resonator modes extend up to the edges of
the mirrors and experience some diffraction losses. [2]
A directive antenna can be designed by using Fabry-Perot
cavities which are made of a ground plane as a perfect mirror
and a single metallic grid as a partially reector mirror to
obtain improved features, they are very thin and use one
only point of excitation, a square patch. Another remarkable
feature is that these antennas have a good directivity in high
frequencies, this type of antenna is shown in gure 2
III. ELECTRICAL HERTZ POTENTIAL INTO MAXWELLS
EQUATIONS
Electrical Hertz Potential is obtained by using Maxwells
Equations and by means of a mathematical procedure the
equation which relates the Electric eld and this potential can
be found.

B =

H (1)
ANTENNAS 2

H =

e
t
(2)
Substituting (2) into (1)

B =

e
t
(3)
Constitutive equations are also known, so the magnetic eld
strength could be cleared from (1), to obtain:

H =

(4)
Then, replace (3) in (4), as follow:

H =

e
t
(5)
At this time of the process the nding results must be
introduced into Maxwells equations, specically to the one
which relates the Amperes Law.

H = j

E +

J (6)
By substituting (5) into (6):

t
(
e
) = j

E +

(7)
In addition, (7) reduces to:

t
((
e
)
2

e
) = j

E +

(8)
Once this equation has been reached, it is necessary to work
with another Maxwells equation, it is:

E = j

H +

M (9)
In this case the magnetic source is null. By replacing (5) in
(9) the electrical Hertz potential is included in the Maxwells
equation to obtain:

E +j

e
t

= 0 (10)
From this equation, it can be deduced the scalar potential, as
follow:

E +j

e
t
=
e
(11)
Replacing (8) into (11):

t
((
e
)
2

e
) = j
e
+k
2

e
t
+

(12)
where k
2
=
2

By integrating both terms of the equation a new expression

can be found:

e
+k
2

e
= (
e
j
e
)

J
j
(13)
Helmholtz equation is:
2
+ k
2
= 0 so the result can be
expressed like:

e
+k
2

e
=

J
j
(14)
IV. MAGNETIC HERTZ POTENTIAL INTO MAXWELLS
EQUATIONS
In an analog way to the electric Hertz potential,the magnetic
Hertz potential can be obtained, these expressions help to sim-
plify the solution of Maxwells equations. The basic equations
needed for this section are:

E = j

H

M (15)

H = j

E +

J (16)
In this case the current density J is equal to zero.

E =

(17)

D =

m
t
(18)
Substituting (18) into (17):

E =

m
t
(19)
Substituting (19) into (15) and applying the curl properties it
reduces to:

t
((
m
)
2

m
= j

H +

(20)
It is important to insert the magnetic Hertz potential into
Maxwells equations, substituting (19) into (16) to obtain:

H +j

m
t

m
= 0 (21)
Then,

H =
m
j

m
t
(22)
Substituting (22) into (20)

t
((
m
)
2

m
) =
2

m
t
j
m
+

(23)
As in the electrical Hertz potential we have to integrate the
previous expression and generalize the formula:

m
+k
2

m
= (
m
+
m
)

M
j
(24)
where k
2
=
2

Finally,

m
+k
2

m
=

M
j
(25)
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has shown that Hertz potentials help to sym-
metrize Maxwells equations and allows to relate electric and
magnetic elds with auxiliary potentials.
Basically, by introducing auxiliary functions, as the potentials,
we can nd important parameters for the antennas. Even
though there are two paths to nd sources and electromagnetic
elds values this one is considered the easiest because it has
been mathematically proved.
If a conductive plate is excited with a transverse magnetic eld
ANTENNAS 3
and it passes through Fabry-Perot cavities we will obtain a
magnetic current which will generate an electric radiation eld
in terms of theta and phi, and if we have a magnetic current
it is evident that we can apply Hertz potentials (
m
and
e
)
to solve the system, and that is exactly how a Fabry-Perot
antenna operates.
REFERENCES
[1] What is Antenna?, (2011), from www.telecomhall.com/what-is-antenna.
aspx
[2] Paschotta, R. RP PHOTONICS ENCYCLOPEDIA. Fabry-P erot Inter-
ferometers., from www.rp-photonics.com/fabry perot interferometers.
html
[3] Balanis, C, Radiation Integrals and Auxiliary Potential Functions in
Antenna Theory (3rd.) Ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 2005, pp. 133-142
[4] N. Gurin, S. Enoch, G. Tayeb, P. Sabouroux, P Vincent, H. Legay, A
Metallic FabryPerot Directive Antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag.,
54, pp. 200-224, 2006
[5] The Fabry-Perot Interferometer, from www.phy.davidson.edu/stuhome/
cabell f/diffractionnal/pages/fabry.htm
[6] Hertz Potentials, from hamwaves.com/stealth/contents/chapter 02.pdf
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4415/eldin-web-09-10/pdf/curso08-09/apuntes%20y%20problemas/
radiacion/TEMA%206 %20RADIACION.pdf
[8] I. Garz on, H. M unera, M

ETODO DE HERTZ PARA SOLU-

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