Abstract

The issues of propagation, energy flow, and field dynamics in electromagnetism have been of primary importance ever since the equations that describe these phenomena were first formulated in their entirety by Maxwell.¹ The validity of the theoretical predictions of Maxwell's equations rests on an overwhelming body of experimental evidence that has never been known to be in contradiction to the basic postulates of the theory, at least in the classical domain. These equations therefore form the basic underpinnings of all of modem optics, including nonlinear and quantum optics.

© 1995 Optical Society of America