All Questions
Tagged with refraction optics
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Most generic form of refractive index tensors
The refractive index of a material is in general a $3x3$ tensor (as in the case of birefringent crystals). From literature, it seems that in the case of transparent crystals, this tensor is in general ...
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Relating Brachistochrone problem to Fermat's principle of least time [closed]
When I came across the Brachistochrone problem, my teacher said we could relate it to Fermat's principle of least time.
So, we could make many glass slabs of high $\mathrm dx$, and every slab has a ...
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Huygens' principle and the laws of reflection/refraction
As I understand the Huygens principle, all points on the wavefront are sources of secondary spherical wavelets and the tangent to these wavelets will form new wavefront. This is used to prove the ...
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Is there a good quantum explanation of refraction? [duplicate]
I'm aware of the classical explanation of refraction which deals with light being a wave that gets "slowed" down while passing from a medium to another. One problem that I have with this ...
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At which wavelengths do photons behave like X-ray?
Hard X-rays of wavelengths of about an angstrom are very different than regular lights in a way that they can’t be reflected or refracted, which means their refractive index is always close to 1 ...
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What does the optical Hamiltonian mean?
So I was trying to demonstrate Snell's law with Hamilton's equations, and when I got the Hamiltonian:
$$H = -\sqrt{n^2-p_{1}^2-p_{2}^2}.$$
I had a question about what this Hamiltonian indicates. I ...
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Inconvenience of speed of light in optic fiber
As far as I'm concerned, optic fiber is great in order to transport information quickly using light. Since light needs to undergo total internal reflection every single time it hits the walls of the ...
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How to Calculate Focal Length when in another medium?
How do you calculate the focal length of a lens when it is placed into another medium, if I only have the focal length of a lens in the air? I understand that the lensmaker's equation should be used, ...
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What is a convex-concave lens?
I came across this term while studying for optics, and I'm unsure as to what this means. My thinking is that it might be a meniscus lens, but the text separately give two different models for each ...
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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 ...
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How does Snell's law work with a complex refractive index?
In order to calculate Fresnel coefficients for layered media, we often need to calculate the angle that light travels inside a material with complex refractive index. Naturally, this is related to the ...
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Why total reflection happens at only 1 angle?
The critical angle can be intuitively understood by Snell's law.If the incident medium has a bigger diffraction index than the refracted medium then according to Snell's law the refracted ray will be ...
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How do parallel reflected rays meet to form image at infinity? If they never meet then how is image formed?
In my textbooks it is written that when an object is kept at focus, its image is formed at infinity and is real. But how is this possible because parallel lines never meet and it is necessary for rays ...
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Ray separation in waveplates
In a birefringent medium, the ordinary and extraordinary rays have different Pointing-vector directions and, therefore, different propagation directions, since the direction of the Poyting-vector ...
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Property of total internal reflection question
If I create a medium with gradually decreasing refractive index from once face at index 2.0 and other at 1.01, and show a beam of light upon the optically denser side, will there be any losses upon ...
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