Right Hand Circular Polarization (RHCP) Animation

Uniform plane wave traveling in +z direction. x and y components of the electric field are shown as traveling, the total electric field at z=zs is shown in green.

The convention used is as defined in the IEEE standard (not the one used in many optics book)

To watch linear, circular and elliptical polarization animation in a single shot, see the below video:

Also see below:
Oblique Plane Wave Reflection From Half Space

Radiation from a Circularly Tapered Dielectric Waveguide

Right Hand Circular Polarization (RHCP) Animation

Linear Polarization Animation

Left Hand Elliptical Polarization (LHEP) Animation

Standing Wave Pattern (SWR) Animation

Electromagnetic Propagation of UWB Short Pulse in Random Medium

Dipole Antenna Radiation

[mcm]

This vid would be even cooler if you had an RHCP song playing while the RHCP animation ran

[tensorbundle]

in engineering we generally define circular polarization seeing from the point of source. Hence the animation is for left hand polarization

[harrydersteppenwolf]

thank you for this video. but i think the orientation is left, not right. to assess the orientation, you have look in the direction of the wave's sources, not in the direction of the wave's propagation.

[jimbeymer]

The key to understanding the difference between the linear and circular cases is to note that, for circular polarization, the two E fields must be ninety degrees out of phase. Radio Amateurs working ham satellites routinely use dual fed yagi antennas that can be switched from left hand circular polarization to RHCP by selecting the correct phasing network. Any phase difference other than ninety degrees will produce varying departures into ellipticity, and in fact an elliptical wavefront that is mostly horizontal or mostly vertical can be considered linear when the polarization loss is less than 1 db.

[jimbeymer]

It’s interesting also to note that the polarization mismatch from circular pol to linear pol is only three dB, while the isolation from cross-polarized circular pol or liner pol antennas is typically on the order of 30-35 dB.

[watkq]

This animation is ok. The circular polarization is shown as the result of two orthogonal vectors (red and blue). At any point in the wave the red and blue amplitudes remain constant as that point moves in the Z direction. For example when the blue vector is maximum the red vector is zero and the resultant is a vector in the X direction. That vector remains in the X-direction as that point moves in the Z direction. It does not rotate in space. There is rotation in time as shown by the green line.

[meyavuz]

@wa6tkq Thanks again for your comments. Actually both animations are correct and basically the second one is created using this one b basically finding the amplitude of the total electric field by using the x and y components at each point. As you can imagine, at a given spatial point, as the wave travels, the direction of electric field vector will be rotating as the wave travels in time. See the other animation. Thanks

[harrydersteppenwolf]

i am assuming that the pictured wave is moving from left to right.

[meyavuz]

Thanks for the comment. I think this needs a clarification. As already mentioned in Wikipedia (search for Circular polarization in wikipedia), there is already a confusion on the conventions. Here, the convention used is that while the thumb is in the propagation direction (i.e. away from the source), the curling of right hand fingers matches the temporal rotation. Hence this is right hand polarization as given in IEEE standards. Reference for this animation is Balanis Advanced EM book.

[leviterande]

Im confused, shouldnt the wave itself be rotating as well along the plane?

[rifimochahari]

Really helpful. Thank you so much for this video.