All Questions
Tagged with electromagnetic-radiation optical-materials
22
questions
116
votes
6
answers
115k
views
Why is glass transparent?
Once I asked this question from my teacher and he replied "Because it passes light.". "And why does it pass light?" I asked and he said, "Because it is transparent.".
The same question again, Why ...
6
votes
2
answers
587
views
Could a transparent frequency-altering material be possible?
I would imagine a material that is transparent but a electromagnetic wave going out will have a lower frequency than when going in (and maintaining it's direction). You could build glasses to see UV-...
6
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Why can't ultraviolet light pass through glass?
What factor determine whether a body behaves like a transparent object for EM waves of a particular frequency?
5
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Why doesn't infrared radiation pass through objects?
It cannot be due to Raman scattering because $1$ in $10^7$ photons are Raman scattered. It cannot be Rayleigh scattering because Rayleigh scattering of infrared radiation is very low due to the ...
5
votes
1
answer
177
views
Does the front of a light wave always propagate at $c$ in media
Consider light moving along one dimension at the classical level. I am interested in the situation where a wave front impacts a material with some generic index of refraction $n(\omega)$, and ...
4
votes
1
answer
170
views
Why are birefringence materials so rare?
By symmetry, most crystals will show birefringence. But the effect is very minute. So the question is actually, why is the birefrigence effect in most low-symmetry materials so small?
3
votes
1
answer
467
views
Brewster's angle for Metal?
As metal has a high refraction index, it is possible to have Brewster's Angle for Metal when the light incident from the air? Is it possible to derive from any formula?
3
votes
2
answers
285
views
What is the mechanism of transparency of EM?
What happens in transparent materials? Do their molecules oscillate with the same frequency as the EM wave and then reemit in the same direction? Or the light goes through meshes in the bulk?
2
votes
0
answers
62
views
How to figure out TM and TE modes based on dispersion relation?
According to this paper (https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5128679), the dispersion relation of hyperbolic materials is as follows:
then it is said, that he first term in brackets in the equation describes a ...
2
votes
0
answers
89
views
What determines the penetration of electromagnetic waves?
What is it that determines whether or not an electromagnetic wave can penetrate different materials and how far it can go? For example light can penetrate through glass, but not concrete walls, but ...
1
vote
1
answer
738
views
Properties of light and refractive index of materials
Why does the refractive index of a material dependent on the wavelenght of light incident on it.
1
vote
1
answer
57
views
Why are things reflective, absorbent, transparent etc? [duplicate]
What determines whether a material reflects, absorbs or transmits a certain wavelength of light? Just a layman's question.
1
vote
1
answer
40
views
Can an optical medium be lossless and dispersive?
Occasionally, I come across the phrase "lossless dispersive linear optical medium". How can such a medium be possible mathematically? I mean the real and imaginary parts of the electric ...
1
vote
2
answers
2k
views
Is there a way to make infrared pass through metals?
I am curious to know a way that will make infrared pass through metals. Metals are good reflectors of infrared,can we manipulate the wave in order to make them pass through metals?.
1
vote
0
answers
417
views
Does reflection depend on wavelength?
I'm aware of processes like Rayleigh scattering, Compton scattering and pair production. But as these processes treat light as being particles(?) I'm not sure whether they are helpful to understand ...