Is My Interpretation of the 2nd Order Derivative Correct?

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Hi there, I'm kind of rusty on some stuff, so hope someone can help enlighten me.

I have an expression
[itex]E(r,w-w0)=F(x,y) A(z,w-w0) \exp[i\beta_0 z][/itex]

I need to substitute this into the Helmholtz equation and solve using separation of variables. However, I'm getting problems simplifying it to a form with can be separated... I reckon the problem lies with my understanding of the 2nd derivative, especially with more variables coming into play.

From the Helmholtz equation,
[itex]\nabla^2 E+\epsilon (w) k_0^{\phantom{0}2} E=0[/itex]

Working out
[itex]\nabla^2 E =\nabla(\nabla E)[/itex]
[itex]=\nabla(A\exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial F}{\partial x}+A\exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial F}{\partial y}+ FA (i \beta_0 \exp[i\beta_0 z])+F \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial A}{\partial z})[/itex]
[itex] =A \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial^2 F}{\partial x^2}+i \beta_0 A \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial F}{\partial x}+ \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial A}{\partial z} \frac{\partial F}{\partial x}[/itex]
[itex] + A \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial^2 F}{\partial y^2}+i \beta_0 A \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial F}{\partial y}+\exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial A}{\partial z} \frac{\partial F}{\partial y}[/itex]
[itex] +\frac{\partial F}{\partial x} \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial A}{\partial z}+ \frac{\partial F}{\partial y} \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial A}{\partial z}+ F A (i \beta_0)^2 \exp[i\beta_0 z][/itex]
[itex] +i \beta_0 F \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial A}{\partial z}+F \frac{\partial A}{\partial z} (i \beta_0) \exp[i\beta_0 z]+F \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial^2 A}{\partial z^2}[/itex]
Which gives
[itex] =\exp[i\beta_0 z][A \frac{\partial^2 F}{\partial x^2}+2i \beta_0 A \frac{\partial F}{\partial x}+ 2 \frac{\partial A}{\partial z} \frac{\partial F}{\partial x}+A \frac{\partial^2 F}{\partial y^2}+2i \beta_0 A \frac{\partial F}{\partial y}+ 2 \frac{\partial A}{\partial z} \frac{\partial F}{\partial y}][/itex]


It seems like the terms [itex]2 \frac{\partial A}{\partial z} \frac{\partial F}{\partial x}[/itex] and [itex]2 \frac{\partial A}{\partial z} \frac{\partial F}{\partial y}[/itex] need to vanish...

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Or have I done the derivative wrongly? Should it be the following instead?
[itex] \nabla^2 E =\nabla_x ^{\phantom{0}2}E+\nabla_y ^{\phantom{0}2}E+\nabla_z ^{\phantom{0}2}E[/itex]

where
[itex] \nabla_x ^{\phantom{0}2}E = A \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial^2 F}{\partial x^2}[/itex]

[itex] \nabla_y ^{\phantom{0}2}E = A \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial^2 F}{\partial x^y}[/itex]


[itex] \nabla_z^{\phantom{0}2}E = \nabla_z [FA (i \beta_0) \exp[i\beta_0 z]+ F \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial A}{\partial z}][/itex]
[itex] =[F (i \beta_0) \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial A}{\partial z}+FA (i \beta_0)^2 \exp[i\beta_0 z]+<br /> F \exp[i\beta_0 z] \frac{\partial^2 A}{\partial z^2}]+ F \frac{\partial A}{\partial z} (i \beta_0) \exp[i\beta_0 z][/itex]

Thanks in advance!
 
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The Laplacian operator ∇[itex]^{2}[/itex] is defined as ∇[itex]\cdot[/itex]∇, or in cartesian components

∇[itex]^{2}[/itex]f = ∂[itex]^{2}[/itex]f/∂x[itex]^{2}[/itex] + ∂[itex]^{2}[/itex]f/∂y[itex]^{2}[/itex] + ∂[itex]^{2}[/itex]f/∂z[itex]^{2}[/itex]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del
 
Thanks SteamKing!

I suppose my second intepretation should be the correct one instead.