All Questions
Tagged with refraction photons
11
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
3
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0
answers
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Photons when passing through matter
I am wondering whether there is a simple—or complicated—way to explain from a purely quantum mechanics (or QFT) viewpoint what happens to the photons when they go through some material whose index of ...
2
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0
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72
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Photon momentum in Snell's law of refraction
In the drivation of Snell's law for light as EM waves, we have the wave vector components parallel to the interface $k1\parallel$ = $k2\parallel$ as shown in the picture.
From $k_{1x} = k_{2x}$, we ...
- 191
2
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2
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101
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How do we know that light cannot travel faster than it does?
We assume the speed of light in vacuum is its maximum speed but can we not assume that it could be faster, or slower?
- 21
2
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774
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What happens when light is reflected from a surface moving in a medium with a huge refractive index?
Imagine a mirror is moving away from a light source in a substance through which the speed of light is very slow -- so slow that the speed of the mirror is close to being the same as the speed of the ...
- 163
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Can we explain certain light phenomenon like refraction using particle nature of light?
Using Hugyen's principle and wave nature of light, refraction, diffraction are relatively simple to explain but I have been visualing a mental model for a couple of days where the photons on reach the ...
- 113
1
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104
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Does a single photon propagate with phase velocity or front velocity through a dispersive material?
I know that we explain the slowing down of light in a dispersive medium classically, by inducing small dipoles in the medium (which holds as long as being far away from absorption bands), and the ...
- 1,803
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28
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Path a photon or phonon takes in a moving medium
Lets say we have a medium with refractive index n whose velocity is given as a function of height.
$v_x(y)=ay$
How would we go about finding the motion of a photon or phonon in this space from the ...
- 780
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48
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What causes an object to be more reflective than refractive?
This is a question that a high school student asked me and I couldn't give him a satisfactory answer. He started by saying that
An object appears red because the energy corresponding to a "red&...
- 8,230
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1
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81
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Is there such a thing as a bare polariton?
When dealing with photons in matter, I have seen it treated in many ways depending on the material, this leads to exciton polaritons (when dealing with electrons and holes), plasmaritons (dealing with ...
- 5,568
0
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90
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Photon explanation of dielectric effects?
When an electromagnetic wave passes through a medium, the electric component of the wave will induce a dipole. I believe this can happen in a number of different ways, including rotating of a polar ...
0
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0
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33
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What is the effect of light on the boundary of a medium and vice versa?
In an answer to a question about light refraction in different media it was said:
Light has an oscillating electric field, and if any charged particle is in the path of the light that particle will ...
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