All Questions
Tagged with reflection optical-materials
30
questions
11
votes
2
answers
2k
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What percentage of light gets scattered by a mirror?
Sunlight strikes a mirror at a 45 degree angle. The vast majority of light will be reflected about the normal. Some light will be absorbed by the mirror. Some light will be transmitted through the ...
- 912
0
votes
0
answers
46
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How can a greater than 1 reflectance coefficient be explained in $\rm SiC$-$\rm SiO_2$ interface?
I ran a simulation using the Transfer Matrix Method to plot the R,T and A curves for a SiC->SiO2 interface. There's a region of incident energies where the |r|^2 I get is higher than 1 and the ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
56
views
Do mirrors (with metal surfaces) show TIR (Total Internal Reflection)?
[Not a duplicate! Also, the answer to a similar question was unsatisfactory]
I was digging into why we don't use mirrors in place of fibre optics cables. Majorly, the answers were as follows:
It's ...
- 153
4
votes
1
answer
684
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How do optical fibres work with high critical angles?
The critical angle is given by:
c = arcsin(n2 - n1)
For a typical optical fibre, it says on the web that refractive index (n2) for cladding is higher than that of the glass core (n1) but it's only a ...
- 153
1
vote
1
answer
57
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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.
- 111
2
votes
2
answers
237
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Why does light either get reflected, absorbed, or passes through a surface or obstacle?
For each of these 3 cases, I'm having trouble understanding...
If light is reflected, does that mean that there was not sufficient energy by the photons to excite the electrons of the surface to ...
- 195
2
votes
1
answer
43
views
Why does (oxidized) aluminum have a diffuse optical appearance?
Unoxidized aluminum has a shiny appearance like typical metals. However in air aluminum rapidly oxidizes, giving it a more diffuse appearance (or bidirectional reflectance distribution function). ...
- 143
1
vote
1
answer
29
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Size of metal domain needed to reflect light ; are small graphene sheets shiny?
I remembered that shininess of a material is because of reflection, ie surface current responding to light. Mathematically, one can solve Maxwell equations under a relevant boundary condition, with ...
- 708
1
vote
1
answer
215
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How does reflectance change with wavelength? [duplicate]
Sorry if this is an easy question, I am new to physics and this field.
I have a question about reflectance which i believe to be "effectiveness of reflecting radiating energy"
My goal is to ...
- 11
0
votes
2
answers
193
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Reflection of light on a colorless material. What happens on atomic level?
I try to understand reflection explained with photons that are interacting with molecules on atomic level.
For this I would like to start with an example and ask the question based on this:
Say I have ...
- 153
1
vote
0
answers
416
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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 ...
- 1,507
36
votes
4
answers
5k
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Why are the edges of a broken glass almost opaque?
Unfortunately I broke my specs today which I used in this question.
But I observed that the edges are completely different then the entire part of the lens. The middle portion of the lens was ...
- 8,230
29
votes
7
answers
5k
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Why don't opaque objects reflect light?
My sister was doing a quiz and I tried to point her in the right direction by giving her scenarios to imagine. One of the questions in the quiz was:
Which of the following objects do not reflect light:...
- 1,289
4
votes
1
answer
251
views
How does a broadband dielectric Mirror work?
It is widely known that dielectric mirrors work with several layers of at least two materials which differ in refractive index that are layered, such that partially reflected waves interfere ...
- 139
2
votes
1
answer
93
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How do "see through mirrors" work? [duplicate]
(I called them see through mirrors because I don't know what their actual name is)
I have seen a lot of pictures of glass-like materials which reflect light from on side, and from the other side, ...
- 377