All Questions
14
questions
3
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Why does laser light not bend (refract) when it travels from air to water?
I passed green laser light from air to water but to my suprise the light doesn't bend towards normal even though I changed the angle of incidence.It goes undeflected ,Is it because of its higher ...
- 47
2
votes
1
answer
209
views
Do high powered lasers refract differently than other light?
So I have a question: I am told that there are naval lasers that target over 100's of miles ship-to-ship (not ship to air). Someone asserted that powerful lasers would refract differently than light. ...
- 475
2
votes
1
answer
38
views
Why are $\rm ZnSe$ beam-combiners typically "optimized" for a 45º angle of incidence?
Everywhere I look it seems that $\rm ZnSe$ beam combiners (as the ones sometimes used in $\rm CO_2$ [10600nm IR] laser cutters) are "optimized" or designed to work at a 45º angle of ...
- 21
2
votes
0
answers
47
views
Is it possible to measure the temperature of a candle by the diffraction method?
I am reading a book " Physics, Fun and Beyond" by Eduardo de Campos Valadares. In his book, he is mentioning about an experiment "bending laser beams with hot air." I am posting a ...
- 221
0
votes
1
answer
79
views
Why when looking at a laser's reflection the laser appears to have a ring of noise around the central beam?
When pointing my presentation laser at a semi glossy object like stained wood or my skin I see noise, almost like TV static (it also appears to be moving). Is this a property of the laser's refraction ...
- 103
2
votes
1
answer
204
views
Reflectivity coefficients at dielectric interface
In the book Principles of Lasers by Orazio Svelto, at chapter 4.3 "Wave Reflection and Transmission at a Dielectric Interface", the author tells that
If the wave is initially in the medium ...
- 1,904
3
votes
1
answer
65
views
Why does the intensity of the scattered light vary when a monochromatic laser is shined into a transparent object?
When a laser is shined into a glass ball such as this video (link) or a bottle of water (link) the light is refracted through the whole transparent body. However, the intensity of the light scattered ...
- 57
2
votes
2
answers
227
views
Can you burn invisible jelly balls with a laser?
Suppose you have some jelly balls with similar refractive index as that of water, like in this video.
You put them in water, making it invisible. So, the optical behavior of the balls should be ...
- 12.5k
0
votes
1
answer
76
views
Gain medium and the speed of light
I am currently studying optics, and when taking a closer look at refractive indices, I stumbled across gain mediums.
On Wikipedia it states that gain mediums can have a refractive index of $n<0$.
...
- 111
1
vote
1
answer
186
views
Effect of the refractive index of a transparent layer coating a particle?
I am modelling a cell as a particle coated by a layer of a material whose refraction index might change. This layer is to resemble the membrane.
The purpose of the model is to simulate what happens ...
- 25
0
votes
0
answers
809
views
How to calculate the Refractive index of a glass sheet
My question is how to find the $n$ of a glass sheet with just aiming a laser beam to that.
I've got lot of ways that let me find the $n$ ( Refractive index ) but I need the whole part of the ...
- 765
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Using a transfer matrix to calculate beam width of off-axis Gaussian beam?
I have been reading a lot about ABCD matrices that are used for ray tracing. I can calculate the output offset $r_{o}$ (with respect to the optical axis) and the angle $\theta$ of the ray by
$$
\...
- 51
1
vote
0
answers
275
views
Laser travelling through a radially graded index of refraction
A laser beam propagates through a region whose refractive index varies as $\mu=\mu_0(\frac{r}{r_0})$. At a distance of R the beam makes an angle of 30° with the normal.
Find the minimum seperation ...
- 121
6
votes
4
answers
5k
views
How do "holographic plates" work?
I asked a question about laser stage lighting over at Audio Video Production, and received an excellent answer that explained that laser clusters are generated from a single beam via something called ...
- 822