All Questions
Tagged with optics electromagnetism
596
questions
2
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1
answer
79
views
Differences in the direction of energy and wave propagation in anisotropic media
I have been studying how light behaves in dielectric and conductive media, and now I was about to study it in anisotropic media. The introduction to the subject is: "From Maxwell's equations it ...
- 67
1
vote
1
answer
50
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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
0
votes
2
answers
156
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Graphical interpretation of complex electric fields
Before anything, I have read similar questions here but still something doesn't click perfectly, so I'll try to describe so.
My doubt is essentially that I have always thought $\vec E$ in the context ...
- 75
3
votes
1
answer
102
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Can the refractive index of a medium be negative?(<0)
Recently I was asked in a test what would happen if the refractive index of a medium was negative. Is it possible really? The refractive index is the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum and ...
- 41
0
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3
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134
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Divergence of $H$ Maxwell equation
In the below screenshot from this paper (link below), why is the 2nd Maxwell equation ($\nabla \cdot H = 0$) not automatically satisfied when the 4th Maxwell equation is satisfied? I don't understand ...
- 101
0
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0
answers
32
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Is there really a relation between light intensity and color saturation?
Going through this article on Wikipedia, under the saturation section, I came across "The purest (most saturated) color is achieved by using just one wavelength at a high intensity, such as in ...
- 1,096
0
votes
1
answer
92
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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
vote
1
answer
133
views
Why are diffuse white highlights on matte objects as bright as they are?
The reason we can see the color of objects is light rays undergo scattering in the subsurface of a material, and in their walk in the material lose some wavelengths, and finally exit at a random ...
- 1,096
2
votes
1
answer
84
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Do light's electric and magnetic components oscillate in physical space?
I have heard that light is a transverse wave which is necessary for effects like polarisation, but I am unsure of what exactly this means. Is this saying that light's electric and magnetic components ...
- 25
0
votes
1
answer
336
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What's the intuition behind the Wigner function of a Fock state?
The Wigner function for a Fock state with $n>1$ has "ripples" leading away from the center. For example, the $n=4$ Fock state looks like this:
The marginals of this distribution give the ...
- 21
0
votes
0
answers
33
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Missing Scaling Factor of the Electric Field of Hermite-Gaussian Modes
I am currently looking at A. Yariv's book "Introduction to Optical Electronics" 2nd edition. In Chapter 3 "Propagation of Optical Beams in Homogenous and Guiding Media", Yariv ...
- 31
0
votes
0
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31
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Phase jump at medium border with EM wave
I have been reading a book about electrodynamics and I have stumbled upon the following matter which is, to me , contradictory. When the electromagnetic wave changes medium, it is subject to certain ...
- 35
0
votes
0
answers
40
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Can a beam be expanded by Hermite-Gaussian modes having a different waist position?
Hermite-Gaussian modes of propagating beam are expressed as
\begin{equation}
E_{l,m}(x,y,z) = E_0\frac{\omega_0}{\omega(z)}H_l\left(\sqrt{2}\frac{x}{\omega(z)}\right)H_m\left(\sqrt{2}\frac{y}{\omega(z)...
- 11
0
votes
1
answer
56
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What is the tiny dot of light in front of both lens in the image? I noticed it while trying to pass a 800 nm pulsed laser through the lens setup
The tiny white dots were formed in front of both the lens when I was trying to pass a 7W, 90 fs, 800 nm pulsed laser through the lens setup shown in the image.
I noticed that the dots disappear when I ...
1
vote
2
answers
236
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What happens to the electric field of circularly polarized light upon a normal reflection from a mirror?
Let's imagine we have Right Circularly Polarized Light propagating in the $+\hat{z}$ direction toward a perfectly reflecting mirror. Before reflection, the light has the electric field:
$$\vec{E}(z)=...
- 141