The following is a list of Laplace transforms for many common functions of a single variable. [1] The Laplace transform is an integral transform that takes a function of a positive real variable t (often time) to a function of a complex variable s (complex angular frequency).
The Laplace transform of a function can be obtained using the formal definition of the Laplace transform. However, some properties of the Laplace transform can be used to obtain the Laplace transform of some functions more easily.
For functions and and for scalar , the Laplace transform satisfies
and is, therefore, regarded as a linear operator.
The Laplace transform of is .
is the Laplace transform of .
The unilateral Laplace transform takes as input a function whose time domain is the non-negative reals, which is why all of the time domain functions in the table below are multiples of the Heaviside step function, u(t).
The entries of the table that involve a time delay τ are required to be causal (meaning that τ > 0). A causal system is a system where the impulse response h(t) is zero for all time t prior to t = 0. In general, the region of convergence for causal systems is not the same as that of anticausal systems.
The following functions and variables are used in the table below:
Function | Time domain |
Laplace s-domain |
Region of convergence | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
unit impulse | all s | inspection | ||
delayed impulse | Re(s) > 0 | time shift of unit impulse [2] | ||
unit step | Re(s) > 0 | integrate unit impulse | ||
delayed unit step | Re(s) > 0 | time shift of unit step [3] | ||
ramp | Re(s) > 0 | integrate unit impulse twice | ||
nth power (for integer n) |
Re(s) > 0 (n > −1) |
Integrate unit step n times | ||
qth power (for complex q) |
Re(s) > 0 Re(q) > −1 |
[4] [5] | ||
nth root | Re(s) > 0 | Set q = 1/n above. | ||
nth power with frequency shift | Re(s) > −α | Integrate unit step, apply frequency shift | ||
delayed nth power with frequency shift |
Re(s) > −α | Integrate unit step, apply frequency shift, apply time shift | ||
exponential decay | Re(s) > −α | Frequency shift of unit step | ||
two-sided exponential decay (only for bilateral transform) |
−α < Re(s) < α | Frequency shift of unit step | ||
exponential approach | Re(s) > 0 | Unit step minus exponential decay | ||
sine | Re(s) > 0 | [6] | ||
cosine | Re(s) > 0 | [6] | ||
hyperbolic sine | Re(s) > |α| | [7] | ||
hyperbolic cosine | Re(s) > |α| | [7] | ||
exponentially decaying sine wave |
Re(s) > −α | [6] | ||
exponentially decaying cosine wave |
Re(s) > −α | [6] | ||
natural logarithm | Re(s) > 0 | [7] | ||
Bessel function of the first kind, of order n |
Re(s) > 0 (n > −1) |
[7] | ||
Error function | Re(s) > 0 | [7] |