Multipole Analysis of Electromagnetic Scattering

Application ID: 31901


The multipole expansion is a powerful tool for analyzing electromagnetic waves scattered by small objects. In the expansion, the scattered field is represented as a superposition of the fields created by a finite set of point multipoles. Each point multipole is connected to a unique electric current mode in the object. This connection can be harnessed to design scatterers with prescribed electromagnetic responses.

In this model, the multipole expansion is implemented and applied to the problem of scattering by a spherical particle. The calculated complex-valued expansion coefficients are compared with the analytical solution of the problem. Excellent agreement is obtained. The model can straightforwardly be adapted for scatterers of arbitrary shape and composition. The implementation is also applicable to periodic arrays of scatterers.

The model uses the Electromagnetic Waves, Frequency Domain physics interface of the Wave Optics module. With minor modifications, it can be set to use the equivalent physics interface of the RF module.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: