Field and potential based methods in complex media electromagnetics

An overview of field and potential based methods in complex media electromagnetics is presented. The overview includes 6-vector field and potential methods, a 4-vector field method and a scalar potential formulation. Advantages and limitations of each method are discussed and the applicability to various material tensor forms is highlighted. It is shown that, when applicable, the scalar potential formulation can offer significant simplification in the mathematical analysis and its compact notation can more clearly reveal the physical nature of the currents and corresponding fields. Scalar potentials are used to find the Green functions for a uniaxial parallel-plate waveguide to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique. Only anisotropic media are considered here for the sake of brevity.