Construct · 3 fields · 5 citations
One name. One construct. Different systems. One map.
● invariant · one construct, three media Nearest construct by meaning·not indexedSpokes are the systems the one construct recurs in; dashed arcs are shared lineage. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.
Drag to watch the word get claimed. Each field appears at the publication date of the earliest source cited for it. Tap a year to see which.
In radio and microwave engineering a waveguide is a hollow conducting tube or similar bounded structure that confines and channels electromagnetic energy along its length, carrying it in discrete transverse mode patterns and passing only frequencies above a cutoff set by the cross-section. Rayleigh's 1897 On the passage of electric waves through tubes, or the vibrations of dielectric cylinders gave the first theory of such guided modes and their cutoff, and the engineering treatment is standard in Pozar's Microwave engineering. The referent is the boundary-confined guided propagation of waves, quantified by mode shapes and cutoff frequencies, and it is the same construct that carries light in an optical fibre and sound in an acoustic duct.[1][2]
In optics a waveguide confines light to a high-index core surrounded by a lower-index cladding, so total internal reflection keeps the energy within the core and it travels as a set of guided optical modes. Kao and Hockham's 1966 Dielectric-fibre surface waveguides for optical frequencies argued that a sufficiently pure glass fibre could guide light over long distances with low loss, the insight behind modern optical communications, and Saleh and Teich's Fundamentals of photonics sets out the mode theory. It is the identical guided-mode construct as the microwave tube, scaled to optical frequencies in a dielectric, and quantified by the modes it supports and its loss per kilometre.[3][4]
In acoustics a waveguide is a duct, pipe, or layered channel that confines sound and lets it travel in discrete acoustic modes with a cutoff frequency below which a given mode will not propagate, the same mechanism that makes a long pipe or an ocean sound channel carry acoustic energy efficiently over distance. Kinsler, Frey, Coppens, and Sanders's Fundamentals of acoustics develops the mode-and-cutoff description for ducts. The referent is the boundary-confined guided propagation of pressure waves, and it is the same construct as the electromagnetic waveguide and the optical fibre, realised for sound rather than light.[5]
Next
See how waveguide sits against neighbouring constructs in the Collider, or export every reference on this page in one click.
Open in ColliderExport BibTeXReport this entryCited on this page?
If your work is cited behind one of these entries, you know better than we do whether we captured the meaning right. Confirm it, suggest an edit, or dispute it, and your name goes on the entry as an author who has checked it, linked to your ORCID.
Claim your construct