Lecture notes on Antenna and Wave Propagation

Babinet’s Principle

Babinet’s principle is a classic concept of the wave theory

of light. It had originally been used to simplify the
analysis of certain diffraction problems.1 In scalar
formulation. Babinet’s principle yields a correspondence
between an amplitude transmission mask and a
complementary mask. Beyond this original application,.
Babinet’s principle has found great importance in, for
example, the design of broadband antennas. In such
designs, ideally, it is possible to produce antennas which
have an arbitrarily large bandwidth.
Babinet’s principle is traditionally applied to amplitude
transmission structures while neglecting the presence of
resonant eigenmodes. Localized eigenmodes contribute to
the optical properties of a wide variety of nanoand micro-
optical devices, such as subwavelength apertures, optical
antennas, or materials with novel electromagnetic
properties.
Babinet’s principle states that the sum of the field at a
point behind a plane having a screen and the field at the
same point when a complementary screen is substituted is
equal to the field at the point when no screen is present.

Salient features of Babinet’s principle

1
Ritambhara ,Department of ECE,JECRC Foundation.
 Lecture notes on Antenna and Wave Propagation

 It does not consider the polarization of antennas in

establishing field relations.
 Basically it deals with absorbing screens only.
 It is useful to reduce the slot antenna problems to a
simplified form like those of linear antennas.

According to Babinet’s principle,

E3 = E1 + E2

Here,     E1 is the field behind the absorbing screen

E2 is the field behind the complementary screen

E3 is the field when there is no screen.

 It is not applicable in the presence of the

conducting screens.
 this principle is valid in optics.
 It cannot be extended to electromagnetic
problems as it is not possible to have absorbing
screens at radio frequencies and as the
polarization of electromagnetic fields is
common.
Meaning of Babinet’s principle

2
Ritambhara ,Department of ECE,JECRC Foundation.
 Lecture notes on Antenna and Wave Propagation

If, S1 is a plane of the screen, S2 is a plane of

observation, S is a point source, E1 is the field at a point
(x, y, z) behind the screen, E2 is the field at (x, y, z) behind
the screen when S1 is replaced by its complementary
screen, E3 is the field at the same point (x, y, z) when no
screen is present.

Babinet’s principle states that,

E3 = E1 + E2

This is illustrated in the figure below. This principle is

valid at the points in the plane S2 and also at the points
behind the screen S1.

This principle is applicable to the points in the

plane S2 and also to the points behind the screen S1.

At radio frequencies, it is not possible to have perfectly

absorbing screens. Hence, Babinet’s principle in optics
cannot be just extended to the electromagnetic problem as
it does not take care of polarisation.

3
Ritambhara ,Department of ECE,JECRC Foundation.
 Lecture notes on Antenna and Wave Propagation

4
Ritambhara ,Department of ECE,JECRC Foundation.