Wave Propagation in Materials for Modern Applications

In the modern times, there has been a growing interest in micro- and nanotechnology. The advances in nanotechnology give rise to new applications and new types of materials with unique electromagnetic and mechanical properties. The process of communication involves the transmission of information from one location to another. As we have seen, modulation is used to encode the information onto a carrier wave, and may involve analog or digital methods. It is only the characteristics of the carrier wave which determine how the signal will propagate over any significant distance. Wave propagation is any of the ways in which waves travel. With respect to the direction of the oscillation relative to the propagation direction, we can distinguish between longitudinal wave and transverse waves. For electromagnetic waves, propagation may occur in a vacuum as well as in a material medium. An electromagnetic wave is created by a local disturbance in the electric and magnetic fields. From its origin, the wave will propagate outwards in all directions. If the medium in which it is propagating (air for example) is the same everywhere, the wave will spread out uniformly in all directions. Wave Propagation in Materials for Modern Applications is devoted to the modern methods in electrodynamics and acoustics, which have been developed to describe wave propagation in these modern materials and nanodevices