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Electromagnetics Blog Posts

The Graphene Revolution: Part 5

May 8, 2013

In a paper titled “Choosing a Gate Dielectric for Graphene Based Transistors“, the applications of a semiconducting form of graphene are examined. As we have seen before, single-layer graphene is not a semiconductor, it is a zero bandgap conductor (a semimetal). Efforts are well underway to introduce bandgaps to graphene, which would make it semiconducting with a room temperature mobility an order of magnitude higher than silicon. The race is already underway to find applications for such a material once […]

Taking Care of Fast Oscillations with the Wave Optics Module

May 7, 2013

The new COMSOL Multiphysics Wave Optics Module provides engineers with a great set of features for designing their simulations. One of the new capabilities included in this module is the groundbreaking beam envelope method for electromagnetic full-wave propagation. We hope this feature will become instrumental to the optics community.

Wave Optics, to Approximate or Not?

April 30, 2013

Engineers working with lasers, optical fibers and waveguides, nonlinear optical processes, metamaterials, and other large photonic devices ultimately deal with wave optics. Photonic devices are considered “large” when they are larger than a wavelength of light. In that case, you deal with optics frequencies as opposed to radio frequencies, and the device is not complex enough to justify approximating with rays.

Step-Index Fiber Simulation

April 23, 2013

Optical fibers are used to transmit information in the form of light through an optical waveguide made of glass fibers. The light is sent in a series of pulses that can be translated as binary code, allowing the transfer of information through the fiber. Because such pulses can travel with less attenuation and are immune to electromagnetic disturbances, fibers are used instead of traditional metallic wires thus allowing data transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths.

Computing the Inductance of a Straight Wire

April 2, 2013

A question that comes up occasionally is whether or not you can compute the inductance of a single straight wire. This seemingly simple question actually does not really have an answer, and gives us the opportunity to talk about a very interesting point when solving Maxwell’s equations. Anybody working in the field of computational electromagnetics should have an understanding of this key concept, as it will help you properly set up and interpret models involving magnetic fields.

Magnetic Bearings

April 1, 2013

In the world of bearings, there are many different types to choose from. For certain applications, magnetic bearings trump their mechanical counterparts in several regards. In order to understand how the bearing will perform, using a simulation tool to calculate design parameters is a good idea.

Smart Materials Innately Transduce Energy, How Smart

March 29, 2013

Smart materials are able to convert one form of energy to another. These materials can be either solid or fluid, and are typically located within what’s called a smart structure. What makes these materials and structures so “smart”? Let’s find out.

The Graphene Revolution: Part 2

March 27, 2013

In a previous blog entry I discussed some of the exotic properties of graphene. The fact that graphene consists of a single layer of atoms means the aspect ratio of any graphene-based structure may be very high. High aspect geometries present their own array of modeling challenges.


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