Bandwidth Limitations for Scattering of Higher Order Electromagnetic Spherical Waves With Implications for the Antenna Scattering Matrix

Various physical limitations in electromagnetic theory and antenna theory have received considerable attention recently. However, there are no previous limitations on the scattering of higher order electromagnetic vector spherical waves, despite the widespread use of spherical wave decompositions. In the present paper, bandwidth limitations on the scattering matrix are derived for a wide class of heterogeneous objects, in terms of their electrical size, shape and static material properties. In particular, it is seen that the order of the dominating term in the Rayleigh limit increases with the order of the spherical wave. Furthermore, it is shown how the limitations place bounds on the antenna scattering matrix, thus introducing a new approach to physical limitations on antennas. Comparisons to other types of antenna limitations are given, and numerical simulations for two folded spherical helix antennas and a directive Yagi-Uda antenna are included to illuminate and validate the theory. The results in this paper are derived using a general approach to derive limitations for passive systems: First, the low-frequency asymptotic expansion of the scattering matrix of a general scatterer is derived. This gives a set of sum rules, from which the limitations follow.