Simulation Tool for the Visualization of EM Wave Reflection and Refraction

This papers presents a simulation tool that can be helpful in teaching the concepts related to the reflection and refraction of electromagnetic waves incident on a planar interface between two dielectric media. It is implemented in MATLAB This tool provides a very flexible graphical interface, with multiple viewing formats for static images or animations. It presents an easy-to-use graphical interface that allows the analysis of any pair of dielectric/conducting media at any incidence angle with linear TE or TM polarization, as well as circular polarization. Different viewing modes, which can be simultaneously presented in a single window, plus the graphical tools already available in all MATLAB graphical windows, provide a simple and efficient interactive environment for the visualization and understanding of the EM reflection phenomena. The implementation of the simulation tool uses an analytical formulation instead of a numerical formulation, providing fast calculations for any modifications in the geometry.