All Questions
Tagged with electromagnetic-radiation optics
712
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Imhomegenous Wave Equation: Possible Born and Wolf Error
My concern involves the following lines from Principle of Optics (Born and Wolf 7th ed, 60 year anniverary, Section 1.2 pg 11). I fail to derive these equations 5,6 exactly.
$$
\begin{align}
\nabla^...
- 948
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Physics behind Lambertian reflectors
Most ordinary surfaces are near Lambertian diffuse reflector, i.e. a small local radiates most strongly at norm then attenuates by cosine law when one gets to the tangentials. However this seems hard ...
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0
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Understanding and researching with Spectroscopy
I am very new to physics so don't know a whole lot yet, so please correct any incorrect vocabulary you may find. Papers that are easy for beginners to understand are also very welcome!
Context:
I am ...
- 43
7
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Why does white light appear white?
When I think of white light, I'm imagining a combination of all 7 colors of light but I believe that since light has wave nature I can say that at some point that the probability density of red light ...
- 93
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104
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The speed of light in medium with different frequency
We know that the speed of light in vaccuum can be expressed as $c=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\mu_0\epsilon_0}}$ and thus the speed of light in vaccuum is thus $$v=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\mu\epsilon}}=\frac{c}{\sqrt{\...
- 83
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Huygens Light Theory using Spheres and Miller's recent discovery?
Huygens writes in "Treatise on Light" a theory that propagation of light through the aether can be explained using Spherical waves emanating from every point and they interfere. Miller ...
- 245
-2
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1
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37
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Struggling with interference [duplicate]
I was reading the book optics by zajac and hecht. It was a nice one until physics optics, i got that interference becomes when the light is coherent and monochromatic, and it is the superposition of ...
3
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1
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158
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Infinite reflection inside a glass loop
If you had a loop made of completely transparent glass (or other material), in the shape of a donut; think atomic collider (but probably not needing to be so large :) ), and you introduced light from ...
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2
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131
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Determining Gaussian beam parameters of a laser
The intended output of many lasers in laser scanning is Gaussian. At distance $z$ from the waist, the radius of a Gaussian beam is calculated as
$$w(z) = w_0 \sqrt{1+(z/z_R)^2},$$
where $w_0$ is the ...
- 153
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28
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For Rayleigh scattering, what is the phase difference between the incident field and the scattered (or reradiated) field?
I am asking within the context of electromagnetic theory. Much of the discourse I could find in the literature was more focused on the phase differences between the scattered fields of various ...
- 21
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63
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Which factors determines whether a photon is absorbed? [duplicate]
After some research, I figured out that all EM waves/photons are absorbed by atoms by exciting an electron from an orbital to an other. However, atoms emit only certain EM waves with specific ...
- 167
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Doppler broadening upon reflection from liquid interface
I just came across the question "Why are the surfaces of most liquid so reflective?", in which the author asks how the surface of a liquid gives rise to a mirror image, even though it ...
- 3,260
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Energy of Monochromatic Beam of Light
A monochromatic beam of light has energy
$$ E_{\text{beam}} = N \hbar \omega, $$
$ N $ being the number of photons in the beam and $ \omega $ their frequency.
Another way to evaluate this energy is ...
1
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1
answer
61
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Dielectric wave guides vs metallic wave guides
I have a couples of questions regarding wave guides. First of all, why are dielectric wave guides better than metallic wave guides for wavelengths in the visible spectrum? Also, for non-ideal metallic ...
- 31
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What is the physics behind a non-zero beam waist in Gaussian Beams?
I have been doing some deeper reading on optics out of my interest and one of the most important differences between ray and Gaussian optics is the existence of a non-zero beam waist when a laser beam ...
