All Questions
Tagged with optics electromagnetism
596
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Frequency and wavelength of a plane wave perpendicularly entering a material with n>1
I just realized that I am not entirely sure as to what happens with the wavelength and the frequency of an optical plane wave when entering for example glass (e.g. monochromatic laser).
The refractive ...
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1
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46
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Help with dispersion relations for EM waves in anisotropic dielectric materials
I am really struggling to understand the following dispersion relations which we derived in class.
For an electric field in the z-direction, we have:
$$k^2_x + k^2_y = \frac{\omega^2}{c^2}n_z^2\tag{1}$...
-1
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1
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66
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The enigma of photon behavior, photon spatial co-inhabitance
The notion that multiple photons can occupy the same spatial coordinates seems perplexing. How is this experimentally validated, considering the intricate challenges and oddities it presents?
Imagine ...
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2
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66
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How to use the boundary conditions of electromagnetic waves to derive the refraction law of light?
In my book it says we can use the boundary conditions of electromagnetic waves to derive the refraction law of light. How to derive it?
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23
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Are Transmission values for absorptive light filters proportional to Intensity?
Mostly filter rates are given in percent, but if I imagine that for example 10 photons hit an absorption filter with 50%, molecules are excited there and in the end only 5 get through while the other ...
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68
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Determinant of the transfer matrix
I am interested in understanding under what conditions the transfer matrix relating the scattering amplitudes on either side of a linear network in optics/electromagnetism has a determinant of 1? ...
2
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1
answer
59
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Can the time varying Intensity of an electric field of a wave be measured?
Lets say that we have a detector which we use to measure the intensity. Theoretically, the intensity is a varying function of time (When we calculate the Poynting vector) but often in textbooks they ...
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46
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What happens in a conductor when the electric field has a plasma frequency?
The complex index of refraction for a conductor is given by the equation: $$N(\omega)=n+ik=\sqrt{1- \frac{\omega_p^2}{\omega^2+i\gamma\omega}} $$ where $\omega_p^2=Nq_e/\epsilon_0m_e$ is the plasma ...
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2
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53
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How to increase the angle of light (without going from a higher to lower index of refraction)?
I would like a device to spread out/increase the angle of rays in a light source. In other words, I would like to reproduce the behaviour of light traveling from an area of higher to lower index of ...
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37
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How exactly can the eye detect electromagentic waves? [duplicate]
From my understanding, EM waves are traveling disturbances in the electric and magnetic fields. They travel at the speed of light, since Maxwell's equation imply
$$\nabla^2 \mathbf{B} = \frac{1}{c^2} \...
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3
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322
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Formal proof that stacking multiple polarizers does/does not improve the extinction ratio?
Assume that you have a light source, e.g. a laser diode, with a polarization extinction ratio (ER) of 100:1, and you need to improve the extinction ratio as much as possible by adding polarizers, e.g. ...
2
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1
answer
115
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Short wavelength limit in Eikonal equation
Limting the discourse of this question only for scalar waves in optics, we have
$\nabla^2 \phi - \dfrac{n^2}{c^2} \dfrac{\partial^2 \phi}{\partial t^2} =0 $.
Now, when we investigate about geometric ...
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26
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Near-field diffraction
I want to calculate near field diffraction loss due to the presence human blockages which are modeled as cylinders with random heights and diameters in indoor mm wave network
as mentioned in " ...
0
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1
answer
23
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Power received close to a large black body radiator
I am interested in calculating the power received by an object near a black body radiator. Say, for example, I had a piece of paper perpendicular to the earth's surface normal. If I make assumptions ...
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Do uniaxial lossy media rotate the polarization of the extraordinary wave?
I am having problems determining the direction of polarization (of the electric field) of the extraordinary wave in a uniaxial crystal when the media is lossy. I am especially interested in the ...