E M P ro g ra m m e r 's N ote book

F o u n ded by J o h n Vo l a k i s

David B . Davidson

Dept. E&E Engi neeri ng

U n iversity of Stellenbosch
Stel len bosch 7600, South Africa
Tel : +27 2 1 808 4458 ;
Fax: +27 2 1 808 498 1
E-mai l : davidson@su n . ac.za

A Pe rs o n a l Selecti o n of Books o n
E l ectro m ag n eti cs a n d
Com p utati o n a l E l ectro m ag n et i cs
David B. Davidson
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
U n iversity of Stellenbosch
Private Bag X 1 , Matieland 7602 , South Africa
E-mai l : davidson@s u n .ac.za

Abstract

A review of a n umber of books on electromagnetics and com putational electromagnetics is presented .

Keywords: Books; electromagnetics; computational electromagnetics; electrical engineering education

1 . I ntrod uction

2. Genera l Books on Electromagnetics

hilst computerized databases have revolutionized the

way we access journals, the same is not true of books.
My own bookshelves still groan with texts that I value highly,
and of which almost none are currently available in electronic
form. I am quite frequently asked by students and young
researchers which I consider to be the cIassic texts. For some
time, I have been considering putting this down in writing, and
a delay in the paper scheduled for this column finally resuIted
in the following review of personal favorites. I emphasize the
term personal: this does not pretend to be an exhaustive bibli
ography of the field, aIthough some fifty books are cited. It is
possible that some of these books may now be available in later
editions; I have mostly referenced the edition that I have.

When our department recently reviewed our j unior-level

text, we were struck by the large number of books now avail
able from wh ich to teach introductory electromagnetics. Here,
I mention only my two personal favorites. The first is Ramo,
Whinnery and van Duzer 's cIassic text [ I ] , first published in
1 965. This is the text from which I was taught as a student
in 1 98 1 . My second favorite is the unique text by Haus and
Me\cher [2], now sadly out of print. The book offers an unri
valled and rigorous development of quasi-statics, a field that
most texts gloss over. We used this text for our juniors for many
years, but it requires a stronger grounding in physics than most
EE students now have. This, combined with being out of print,
led us to replace it with a text more accessible to our students.

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IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine. Vol . 5 3 , No. 6, December 20 1 1

The classic text on electromagnetics remains Stratton [3],

and this work is still regularly cited today. It has recently been
reissued by the IEEE, and it is again readily available. At the
post-graduate level, Balanis's text has become a standard ref
erence [4] . It is especially notable for its detailed and rigorous
derivation of classic analytical results in electromagnetics,
such as scattering from right circular cylinders and spheres.
Harrington 's book [5] is another standard reference, also
available as an IEEE reprint; it is not dissimilar in coverage
to Balanis. For more-advanced treatments - in particular, of
integral equations - Ishimaru 's text can be recommended [6] .
Unlike most books on electromagnetics that first introduce
analytical solutions, with numerics only introduced later,
Smith 's book [7] starts with an immediate application of the
FDTD before moving on to the more-classical approach.
Another book taking a less-conventional approach is Elliot's
particularly erudite text [8] . The book starts immediately with
special relativity, and develops electromagnetics in that con
text. Jones presents an interesting unified treatment of acous
tics and electromagnetics in [9] . His two-volume text is also of
interest, although the slightly unconventional notation therein
requires adjustment [ 1 0] . Tai 's text [ 1 1 ] is the standard refer
ence on dyadic Green functions in electromagnetics. Felsen and
Marcuvitz [ 1 2] - first published in 1 973, and also now available
again as an IEEE reprint - is another classic in advanced EM
theory, although not the easiest reading. Their coverage of the
asymptotic evaluation of integrals is regularly cited. On guided
waves, Collin is the standard reference [ 1 3] . For an very good
treatment of stratified media, Chew 's book rewards study [ 1 4] ;
Kong also addresses this i n some detail i n [ 1 5] . For an excellent
treatment of electromagnetics in the context of radio astronomy,
Kraus's book remains a valuable reference [ 1 6] . (The second
edition ofthis text was effectively self-published). Although the
latter part of both editions, especially that focusing on specific
telescopes, is now of course very outdated, the first part retains
its relevance.
Many excellent books on electromagnetics are more phys
ics than engineering oriented. A frequently referenced book in
physics is Jackson 's text [ 1 7] . Whilst I have referred to it on
occasions, it can be a somewhat inaccessible for engineers . A
volume (actually three volumes) to which I regularly refer are
Feynman 's Lectures in Physics [ 1 8] . Although first presented
almost fifty years ago, Feynman's idiosyncratic approach
remains compelling today, and his discussion of electromagnetic
potential theory, including the Lienard-Wiechert potential, is
superb. An interesting footnote here is that the final lecture
concludes with a discussion of the Josephson j unction, j ust
invented at the time, and F eynman 's insight into its potential. In
the closely related field of optics, Born and Wolf is the classic
reference [ 1 9] . Finally, for those wanting an unconventional
and challenging development with a very strong physics
perspective, Schwinger 's recently published and edited lecture
notes on electromagnetics [20] can be recommended.

3. Genera l Books o n
C o m p utati o n a l E lectromagnetics
Peterson, Ray, and Mittra's book [2 1 ] is a classic, with
excellent coverage of both integral- and differential-equation
based techniques. It is perhaps strongest on the former.
Bondeson, Rylander, and Ingelstrm 's text [22] offers par
ticularly concise coverage of the field, combined with a
rigorous mathematical approach. It is particularly strong on
basic aspects of finite differencing, especially when applied
to complex exponentials - which underlies both dispersion
and stability analyses of the FDTD. My own book [23] takes
a slightly different approach to both these texts: it integrates
theoretical development; MATLAB examples in one, two, and
three dimensions; and application of commercial software. It
provides approximately equal coverage of the FDTD, MoM,
and FEM. Sadiku 's book is widely referenced [24] . It is more
general that the three discussed above, which focus primarily on
full-wave applications. Booton 's text [25] is similar to Sadiku 's
in its generality, but with less-extensive coverage. None of
these texts addresses asymptotic methods - in particular, UTD
- for which [26] remains the standard reference. It should also
be mentioned that some recent antenna texts, for example [27,
28], contain introductory coverage of MoM, FDTD, and UTD.

4. S pecial ized Books o n

C o m p utati o n a l E lectromag netics
There are several very good texts on the FDTD method.
Kunz and Luebber 's was the first [29] , appearing in 1 993.
Taftove 's volume, presently in its third and co-authored edi
tion [30] , is the standard reference for the FDTD in CEM. The
book offers encyclopedic coverage of the method. (Kunz and
Luebbers were unfortunate to publish their book just before
the revolutionary perfectly matched layer (PML) was invented
by Berenger in 1 994, although the book still contains useful
material, not the least a working FDTD code. This code has
served as the basis for a number of academic codes.)
Similarly, the FEM is weil served. There are a number of
excellent texts on the FEM, including those by Jin (revised in
2002) [3 1 ] , Silvester and Ferrari [32] , and Volakis et al. [3 3 ] .
Another useful source i s the 1 996 volume edited b y Itoh e t al.
[34] . More recently, Zhu and Cangellaris's text [35] provides
coverage of many advanced issues in full-wave FEM. The
book by Monk repays careful study by those wanting a text
with more mathematical rigor, whilst still being firmly rooted
in electromagnetics [36] .
The MoM is currently less weil served by single-focus
books. The original text by Harrington [37], although reprinted

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 5 3 , No. 6, December 2 0 1 1

1 57

- but not revised - on several occasions and still very widely

referenced, is not particularly useful when implementing
complex RF simulation codes, since its focus is more on basic
concepts. The text by Wang [38] is quite widely referenced,
but was published many years back, and some of the more
troublesome and advanced issues of a MoM implementation
are not discussed in the book. Several important chapters in
the now hard-to-find [39] are of considerable interest when
implementing complex wire codes, and this still appears to be
the only comprehensive derivation available of the magnetic
field integral equation as generally used; this work generalized
some aspects of Maue 's original derivation. Another hard-to
find reference with useful information on MoM procedures
for arbitrarily oriented wire antennas is [40] . In this context,
Moore and Pizer's monograph [4 1 ] was useful in its time, but
unfortunately has never been revised, and may be difficult
to locate. (Although a report rather than a book, a useful and
readily available source on this topic is the theory manual
for NEC-2 [42] .) Although focused specifically on antenna
modeling as an application of MoM, the book by Makarov can
be recommended [43] .

5 . Other Books
Computational electromagnetics uses many techniques of
numerical analysis. On this general topic, Press et al. is both
highly entertaining and informative [44] , and my first stop
when I need to understand a numerical method new to me.
They also provide an excellent introductory treatment to finite
differencing, in general [44] . Richtmyer and Morton 's text on
finite-difference methods applied to initial-value problems
remains the classic reference [45 ] . Although out of print, copies
may be found at special ist online booksellers.
For general FEM, a widely cited text is [46] , and it is
particularly useful for time-domain FEM. Although quite
widely cited in solid mechanics, I find Braess's book [47] very
difficult going.
On mathematics and mathematical physics, I regularly
refer to Boas 's text [48] , which is especially accessible. As a
comprehensive reference on mathematical physics, Artken and
Weber [49] is an excellent acquisition. For functional analysis,
I refer to Reddy 's introductory text [50] , as it is specifically
focused on finite elements. For matrix algebra, Golub and van
Loan is the standard reference [5 1 ] , although I find [52] more
accessible. For boundary-value problems, Stakgold is widely
cited [5 3 ] . Oudley's book is also of note [54] .

Any list of this nature inevitably overlooks some very

worthy volumes. I have also specifically not included books
on antennas, except where there is overlap, nor books on
microwave devices. I have also not included collected volumes
of papers: with the ready availability of electronic databases
these are less useful nowadays, although the editorial comments
in some ofthe volumes were very insightful. There have also no
doubt been some recently published texts that are not included.
Finally, whilst correspondence is - as always - welcome, it may
not be possible to publish all comments.

7. Referen ces
1 . S. Ramo, 1. R. Whinnery, and T. van Ouzer, Fields and Waves
in Communication Electronics, Third Edition, New York, John
Wiley and Sons, 1 994.
2. H . A. Haus and 1. R. Melcher, Electromagnetic Fields and
Energy, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1 989.
3 . J. A. Stratton,
Hill, 1 94 1 .

Electromagnetic Theory, New York, McGraw

4 . C . A . Balanis, Advanced Engineering

New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1 989.
5. R. F. Harrington, Time-Harmonic
New York, McGraw-Hill, 1 96 1 .

Electromagnetics,

Electromagnetic Fields,

Electromagnetic Wave Propagation, Radiation

and Scattering, Engelwood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1 99 1 .

6 . A. Ishimaru,

7. G. S . Smith, A n Introduction to Classical Electromagnetic

Radiation, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 1 997.

6 . Concl usions
The more than fifty books referenced here were acquired
during the course of almost a quarter-century of work in elec
tromagnetics. As a community, we are fortunate that a number
of these are back in print as part of an IEEE program. These

1 58

books also represent a significant financial investment. For

young researchers at universities and research institutions,
it would be worth insuring that a representative selection of
these texts is avai lable in your institution 's library, if they are
not already. If one was to make a very limited "starting-up"
selection for one 's own shelves in electromagnetics and com
putational electromagnetics, I would recommend the follow
ing: Stratton [3] as the classic reference on electromagnetics;
Balanis [4] as an excellent and comprehensive modem refer
ence; for contemporary computational electromagnetics, either
Bondeson, Rylander and Ingelstrm [22] or my own text [23 ] ,
depending o n whether one 's interests incline more towards
mathematics or applications, respectively; and then for more
specialized CEM coverage, Jin for FEM [3 1 ] , or Taftove and
Hagness for FOTO [30] .

8 . R. S . Elliott, Electromagnetics: History, Theory and Appli

cations, Piscataway, NJ, IEEE Press, 1 993 .
9. O. S. Jones, Acoustic and Electromagnetic
Oxford University Press, 1 986.

Waves, Oxford,

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 5 3 , No. 6, Oecember 20 1 1

1 0. D. S . Jones, Methods in Electromagnetic Wave Propaga

tion, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1 987.

27. W. L. Stutzman and G. A. Thiele, Antenna Theory and

Design, Second Edition, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1 998.

1 1 . C . T. Tai, Dyadic Green s Functions in Electromagnetic

Theory, Second Edition, New York, IEEE Press, 1 994.

28. C . A. Balanis, Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, Sec

ond Edition, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1 997.

Radiation and Scattering

29. K. S . Kunz and R. 1 . Luebbers, The Finite DifJerence Time

Domain Method for Electromagnetics, Boca Raton, Florida,

1 2 . L. B . Felsen and N . Marcuvitz,

of Waves, IEEE Press, IEEE Press,

1 994, originally published

CRC Press, 1 993 .

1 973 .
1 3 . R. E. Collin, Field
IEEE Press, 1 99 1 .

Theory of Guided Waves,

New York,

1 4. W. C . Chew, Waves and Fields in Inhomogeneous

New York, van Nostrand Reinhold, 1 990.
1 5 . J. A. Kong, Electromagnetic
Wiley and Sons, 1 986.
1 6. J. D. Kraus,
1 968.

Media,

Wave Theory, New York, John

Radio Astronomy, New York,

1 7. 1. D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics,

New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1 97 5 .

McGraw-Hill,

Second Edition,

1 8 . R. P. Feynmann, R. B. Leighton, and P. Sands, The Feynmann

Lectures on Physics, Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley, 1 963.
1 9. M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles ofOptics: Electromagnetic
Theory of Propagation, Interference and DifJraction of Light,
Seventh Edition, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press,
1 999.

3 1 . 1.-M. Jin, The Finite Element Method in Electromagnetics,

Second Edition, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 2002 .
32. P. P. Silvester and R. L. Ferrari, Finite Elements for Elec
trical Engineers, Third Edition, Cambridge, Cambridge Uni
versity Press, 1 996.
33. J. Volakis, A. Chatterj ee, and L. Kempel, Finite Element
Method for Electromagnetics: Antennas, Microwave Circuits
and Scattering Applications, Oxford and New York, Oxford
University Press and IEEE Press, 1 998.
34. T. Itoh, G. Pelosi, and P. P. Si lvester (eds.), Finite Element
Software for Microwave Engineering, New York, John Wiley
and Sons, 1 996.
35. Y. Zhu and A. C . Cangellaris, Multigrid Finite Element
Methods for Electromagnetic Field Modeling, New York, IEEE
Press, 2006.

Schwinger, L. L. DeRaad, K. A. Milton, and w. - Y. Tsai ,

Classical Electrodynamics, Reading, MA, Perseus Books,
1 998.

36. P. Monk, Finite Element Methodsfor Maxwell s Equations,

Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 2003 .

2 1 . A. F. Peterson, S . L. Ray, and R. Mittra, Computational

Methods for Electromagnetics, Oxford and New York, Oxford
University Press and IEEE Press, 1 998.

3 7 . R. F. Harrington, Field Computation by Moment Methods,

Malabar, Florida, Robert E. Krieger, 1 982, reprint of 1 968
edition.

22. A . Bondeson, T. Rylander, and P. Ingelstrm, Computational

Electromagnetics, New York, NY, Springer Science, 2005 .

3 8 . J.

Computational Electromagnetics for RF

and Microwave Engineering, Second Edition, Cambridge, UK,

39. R. Mittra (ed.), Computer

Oxford, Pergamon, 1 97 3 .

20.

1.

30. A. Taflove and S. Hagness, Computational Electrody

namics: The Finite DifJerence Time Domain Method, Third
Edition, Norwood, MA, Artech House, 2005.

2 3 . D. B. Davidson,

Cambridge University Press, 20 1 1 .

24. M . N . O. Sadiku, Numerical Techniques in Electromag
netics with MATLAB, Boca Raton, Florida, CRC Press, 2009.
25. R. C . Booton, Computational Methods for Electromag
netics and Microwaves, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1 992.
26. D. A. McNamara, C . W. I . Pistorius, and J. A. G. Malherbe,
The Uniform Geometrical Theory of DifJraction, Norwood,
MA, Artech House, 1 990.

1. H. Wang, Generalized Moment Methods in Electro

magnetics, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1 99 1 .

Techniquesfor Electromagnetics,

4 0 . W. A. Imbriale, "Applications of the Method ofMoments to

Thin-Wire Elements and Arrays," in R. Mittra (ed.), Numerical
and Asymptotic Techniques in Electromagnetics, Berlin,
Springer-Verlag, 1 97 5 .

Moment Methods in Electro

magnetics Techniques and Applications, Letchworth, Hert

4 1 . J. Moore and R. Pizer (eds.),

fordshire, Research Studies Press, 1 986.

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 53, No. 6, December 20 1 1

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42. G. 1. Burke and A . 1. Poggio, "Numerical Electromagnetics

Code (NEC) - Method ofMoments; Part I: Program Description
- Theory," January 1 98 1 .
43 . S . N . Makarov, Antenna and EM modeling with MATLAB,
New York, John Wiley and Sons, 2002.
44. W. H . Press, S . A. Teukolsky, W. Vettering, and B . R.
Flannery, Numerieal Reeipes: The Art ofScientifie Computing,
Third Edition, Cambridge, England, Cambridge University
Press, 2007.
45 . R. D. Richtmyer and K. Morton, DifJerenee Methods for
Initial- Value Problems, Seeond Edition, New York, John Wiley
and Sons, 1 967, 1 994 reprint, Malabar, FA, Krieger.
46. T. 1. R. Hughes, The Finite Element Method: Linear Static
and Dynamic Finite Element Analysis, Englewood Cliffs, NJ,
Prentice-Hall, 1 987, Dover reprint,

2000.

47. D. Braess, Finite Elements Theory, Fast Solvers, and

Applications in Solid Mechanics, Second Edition, Cambridge,
UK, Cambridge University Press,

200 1 .

48. M . Boas, Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences,

Third Edition, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 2005.
49. G. B. Arfken and H . J. Weber, Mathematical Methods for
Physicists, Second Edition, Burlington, MA, Elsevier, 2005.

50. B . D. Reddy, Introductory Functional Analysis: With

Applications to Boundary- Value Problems and Finite Elements,
New York, Springer-Verlag, 1 998.

51.

G. H . Golub and C . F. Van Loan, Matrix Computations,

Third Edition, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press,
1 996.

52.

A. Jennings, Matrix Computation for Engineers and Sci

entists, Chichester, John Wiley and Sons, 1 98 5 .

5 3 . I . Stakgold, Green :S Functions and Boundary Value

Problems, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1 979.
54. D. G. Dudley, Mathematieal Foundations for Electromag
netie Theory, New York, IEEE Press, 1 994. A

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