6.1 Fundamentals

This section is held on an introductory level. Firstly, the mathematical formulation of the problem is derived. Here we start with the most basic, generally valid form of the Maxwell equations. Restriction to an isotropic, inhomogeneous, time-invariant, linear medium as well as to time-harmonic EM fields yields the partial differential equation (PDE) set we have to solve. Secondly, a brief overview of the strategy behind the differential method is given, which shall act as a guideline for the following thorough derivations.