The uniqueness of the inverse transmission problem with phaseless far field data at a fixed frequency

Abstract This paper is concerned with uniqueness in inverse electromagnetic scattering with phaseless far-field pattern at a fixed frequency. In our previous work (2018,SIAM J. Appl. Math. 78, 3024–3039), by adding a known reference ball into the acoustic scattering system, it was proved that the impenetrable obstacle and the index of refraction of an inhomogeneous medium can be uniquely determined by the acoustic phaseless far-field patterns generated by infinitely many sets of superpositions of two plane waves with different directions at a fixed frequency. In this paper, we extend these uniqueness results to the inverse electromagnetic scattering case. The phaseless far-field data are the modulus of the tangential component in the orientations ${\boldsymbol{e}}_\phi $ and ${\boldsymbol{e}}_\theta $, respectively, of the electric far-field pattern measured on the unit sphere and generated by infinitely many sets of superpositions of two electromagnetic plane waves with different directions and polarizations. Our proof is mainly based on Rellich’s lemma and the Stratton–Chu formula for radiating solutions to the Maxwell equations.