PIERS ONLINE, VOL. 3, NO.

5, 2007 680

Electromagnetic Scattering from an Arbitrarily Shaped

Three-dimensional Inhomogeneous Bianisotropic Body
C. Mei, M. Hasanovic, J. K. Lee, and E. Arvas
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA

Abstract This paper presents a numerical solution to scattering problems that involve 3D
inhomogeneous bianisotropic scatterers of an arbitrary shape. The constitutive relations are
assumed to be of the most general form and composed of four 3 3 matrices or tensors. The
problem is described through a mixed potential formulation. The electric and magnetic potentials
are related to electric and magnetic bound charges and polarization currents and then to the
electric and magnetic polarizations. The electric field and magnetic field integral equations are
constructed. The method of moments technique is then applied to obtain a numerical solution to
the problem. The volume of the scatterer is meshed by tetrahedral cells and face-based functions
are applied to expand unknown quantities. The proposed formulation has been evaluated and
verified through examples of scattering by various chiral and gyrotropic scatterers illuminated by
a plane electromagnetic wave. Numerical results of scattering from a chiroferrite sphere are also
presented showing the flexibility of the proposed method.
DOI: 10.2529/PIERS061005231254

1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the study of interaction between electro-
magnetic fields and bianisotropic materials. Various complex media such as uniaxial materials,
gyrotropic materials, chiral materials, and combinations of chiral materials and ferrites (chirofer-
rites) have found their place in circuit substrates, waveguides, antennas, and many other electronic
and optical devices. A study of inhomogeneous bianisotropic scattering problems is also important
for applications such as radar detection, medical diagnostics, and power absorption in biological
bodies.
With a development of material techniques, there is an urgent need for a fast and accurate
general-purpose electromagnetic field solver that could handle all kinds of inhomogeneities, dis-
persion, anisotropy, chirality, and even bianisotropy. There exist several methodologies to analyze
electromagnetic field interaction with complex media. For example analytical methods such as Mie
series expansion [1] and exponential matrix technique [2] are successfully used to study source radia-
tion and wave propagation problems in simple structures such as biisotropic spheres or bianisotropic
multilayer substrates. 3D full-wave numerical algorithms in time domain such as finite-difference
time-domain (FDTD) method, the method of line (MoL), and transmission line modeling method
(TLM) have been extended to model electromagnetic interaction with various complex media such
as chiral materials and gyrotropic materials [3, 4]. Latest research efforts are related to scattering
from homogenous dispersive anisotropic or biisotropic materials. However each of these methods
has certain limitations. Analytical methods are difficult to apply to complex structures that involve
3D arbitrary shaped geometries. In solving problems that involve dispersive materials, time domain
methods rely on the Z-transform of analytical expressions that describe dispersion properties of a
material [5]. These analytical expressions are in many cases very difficult to obtain. Corresponding
computer programs also need to be adapted for different dispersion properties.
Current frequency domain methods such as finite-element method (FEM), FEM-boundaryelement
method (FEM-BEM), and method of moments (MoM) are also able to treat wave propagation and
radiation problems related to chiral media or anisotropic materials [69]. Most of the time prob-
lems are solved in frequency domain, so there is no need to obtain analytic expressions of the
material dispersion in advance. In general, there is little research work done in solving problems
that involve general bianisotropic materials. Main purpose of this paper is to offer a MoM solution
to problems that involve 3D inhomogeneous bianisotropic scatterers of an arbitrary shape. The
developed formulation does not put any limits on the geometrical assignment of material properties
to the scatterer. It can be applied to multilayered scatterers, scatterers with materials assigned to
different regions of the scatterer in a linear, exponential or any other fashion, etc.
 PIERS ONLINE, VOL. 3, NO. 5, 2007 681

2. FORMULATION
The proposed problem can be formulated in the following way. Let us consider a general inhomo-
geneous bianisotropic body characterized by the following constitutive relations in a region free of
sources,
D = E + H, B = E + H (1)

where is the permittivity tensor, is the permeability tensor, and and are the magnetoelectric
tensors. They are all assumed to be generalized 3 3 tensors.

Figure 1: Inhomogeneous bianisotropic body illuminated by an electromagnetic wave.

As shown in Figure 1, when the body is illuminated by a time-harmonic electromagnetic wave,

the total field can be expressed through the following mixed potential formulation:
inc 1 inc 1
E=E jA V F, H=H jF U + A (2)
0 0

where A and F and are electric and magnetic vector potentials and V and U are electric and
magnetic scalar potentials respectively.
The electric and magnetic vector potentials A and F and electric and magnetic scalar potentials
V and U are related to the electric and magnetic polarization currents J ep (r) and J mp (r), electric
and magnetic bound charges ep (r) and mp (r), and electric and magnetic surface bound charges
ep (r) and mp (r) in the following way:
Z Z Z
0
0 1 0
0 1
A = 0 dv G r, r J ep (r) , V = dv G r, r eb (r) + ds0 G r, r0 eb (r)
0 V 0 S
ZV Z Z
0
0
1 0
0
1
F = 0 dv G r, r J mp (r) , U = dv G r, r mb (r) + ds0 G r, r0 mb (r) (3)
V 0 V 0 S

where G(r, r0 ) is the free space Greens function.

Electric and magnetic polarization currents and electric and magnetic bound charges are further
related to electric and magnetic polarizations P and M , as

eb = P , eb = P 1 P 2 n, J ep = jP

mb = 0 M , mb = 0 M 1 M 2 n, J mp = j0 M (4)

where n is the normal direction of the boundary pointing from medium 2 to medium 1.
By definition electric and magnetic polarizations are related to electric and magnetic fields by
constitutive relations,
1 1 h i
P = D 0 E = 0 I E + H, M = BH = E + 0 I H . (5)
0 0

Substituting (3) into (2), and replacing bound charges and polarization currents by the electric
polarization and magnetic polarization and then by electric and magnetic fields using (4) and (5),
the only unknowns left in (2) are the total electric and magnetic fields. This way we constructed
the electric integral equation and magnetic integral equation.
 PIERS ONLINE, VOL. 3, NO. 5, 2007 682

3. APPLYING THE METHOD OF MOMENTS TECHNIQUE

Equations (2) cannot be solved analytically. Expanding the unknown quantities D(r) and B(r) in
terms of a set of face-based functions f n (r) on a tetrahedral mesh as described in [10], where
N
X N
X
D (r) = Dn f n (r) , B (r) = Bn f n (r) , (6)
n=1 n=1

then testing with f m (r) as in Galerkins method, (2) are transformed into the following set of
equations,

F (r) D inc
E
j f m (r) , A (r) + f m (r) , V (r) + f m (r) , + f m (r) , E(r) = f m (r) , E (r)
0

A (r) D inc
E
j f m (r) , F (r) + f m (r) , U (r) f m (r) , + f m (r) , H(r) = f m (r) , H (r) (7)
0

where for arbitrary X and Y , X, Y is the symmetric product of X and Y defined to be the
integral of their dot product over the volume of the scatterer. Unknown vectors E and H in (7)
are replaced by D and B using

E = 1 D + 2 B, H = 3 D + 4 B (8)

where
" #1
1 2
= = , (9)
3 4
and then by the expansion of basis functions f n (r) using (6). Equations (7) can then be solved
numerically for Dn and Bn .
The process described above involves evaluating several different types of volume integrals over
tetrahedra and surface integrals over triangles:
Z Z Z

Imn = f m (r) n f n (r) d 0 , I 1n (r) = f n (r) G r, r0 d 0 , I2n (r) = G r, r0 d 0
ZTn ZTn Tn

I3mn = f m (r) n I 1n (r) d 0 , ISn = n f n (r) nn G r, r0 d 0 . (10)
Tn Sn

These integrals are treated in the same way as in [814].

4. NUMERICAL RESULTS
Numerical data obtained through the MATLAB implementation of the proposed formulation is
given here. We considered three types of scatterers: a two-layered chiral sphere, a gyromagnetic
sphere, and a two-layered chiroferrite sphere. These bodies are illuminated by a -polarized plane
inc
electromagnetic wave incident from the direction where = 180 and = 0 (E = ax E inc ejkz ).
We first investigated a two-layered chiral sphere of radius R with k0 R = k0 r2 = 1.5 where k0
is the free-space wave number. The radius of the core is half the radius of the whole sphere and
has relative chirality r1 = 0.3 while the outside layer has relative chirality r1 = 0.5. Both layers
have the same relative permittivity r = 2 and relative permeability r = 1. Results presented in
Figure 2 are copolarized and cross-polarized bistatic radar cross sections, respectively. Obtained
numerical results are compared to the results given in [9] and good agreement is observed.
In the second example, the scattering body is a homogeneous gyromagnetic sphere. The sphere
is of radius R of k0 R = 0.2 and "filled by a#material with relative permittivity r = 1 and the
5 j 0
relative permeability tensor r = j 5 0 . Total radar cross sections obtained through the
0 0 7
implementation of the proposed formulation are given on the left side of Figure 3, and compared
to the work of Geng et al. [7]. The results of two methods match well.
 PIERS ONLINE, VOL. 3, NO. 5, 2007 683

Figure 2: Copolarized (left) and cross-polarized (right) bistatic radar cross sections of a two-layered chiral
sphere illuminated by a plane EM wave.

Figure 3: Total radar cross section of a gyromagnetic sphere (left) and a two-layered chiroferrite sphere
(right). Both scatterers are illuminated by a plane EM wave.

The last example we show here is a two-layered chiroferrite sphere of radius R with k0 R = k0 r2 =
1.508. The radius of the core is half the radius of the"whole sphere and the material is gyromagnetic
#
2.3231 j0.1101 0.0879 + j0.6571 0
material with the relative permeability tensor r = 0.0879 j0.6571 1.7462 j0.4308 0 and
0 0 1
relative permittivity r = 1. The outside layer has relative chirality r = 0.1018 j0.0076, relative
permittivity r = 4.7692 j1.8462, and relative permeability r = 1.7462 j0.4308. Results for
total radar cross sections are presented on the right side of Figure 3. As the method gave accurate
results for the previous cases of chiral and gyromagnetic scatterers, we expect that the numerical
results obtained for the chiroferrite scatterer are also valid.

5. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a numerical solution based on the method of moments for electromagnetic
scattering from arbitrarily shaped three-dimensional inhomogeneous bianisotropic scatterers. Cases
that we studied here are a two-layered chiral sphere, a gyromagnetic sphere, and a two-layered
chiroferrite sphere. The proposed solution is applicable to any shape of scatterer and to any kind
of spatial and frequency dependence of material properties. However, it may suffer from a rapid
growth of computational complexity in the case of electrically large objects with increased mesh
 PIERS ONLINE, VOL. 3, NO. 5, 2007 684

resolution. Some acceleration techniques such as those based on the fast Fourier transform [15]
can be applied in further research with the objective of increasing the efficiency of the computer
program through a reduction of memory and time requirements.
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