Decoupled Potential Integral Equations for Electromagnetic Scattering From Dielectric Objects

Abstract

Recent work on developing novel integral equation formulations has involved using potentials as opposed to fields as unknown variables. This is a consequence of additional flexibility offered by potentials that enable development of well-conditioned systems. Until recently, most of the work in this area focused on formulations for analysis of scattering perfectly conducting objects. In this paper, we present well-conditioned decoupled potential integral equations (DPIEs) formulated for electromagnetic scattering from homogeneous dielectric objects. The formulation is based on decoupled boundary conditions derived for scalar and vector potentials. The resulting DPIE is a second kind integral equation, and does not suffer from either low frequency or dense mesh breakdown. Analytical properties of the DPIE are studied for spherical systems, and results provided demonstrate well-conditioned nature (and bounded spectrum) of the resulting linear system.