Optics Phenomenon

Reflection
A ray of light heading towards an object is called an incident ray.
If it reflects off the object, it is called a reflected ray. A
perpendicular line drawn at any point on a surface is called a
normal (just like with normal force). The angle between the
incident ray and normal is called the angle of incidence, i, and
the angle between the reflected ray and the normal ray is called
the angle of reflection, r. The law of reflection states that the
angle of incidence is always equal to the angle of reflection.
 Diffuse Reflection
Diffuse reflection is when light bounces off a non-smooth surface.
Each ray of light still obeys the law of reflection, but because the
surface is not smooth, the normal can point in a different for
every ray. If many light rays strike a non-smooth surface, they
could be reflected in many different directions. This explains how
we can see objects even when it seems the light shining upon it
should not reflect in the direction of our eyes. It also helps to
explain glare on wet roads: Water fills in and smoothes out the
rough road surface so that the road becomes more like a mirror.
 Speed of Light & Refraction

As you have already learned, light is extremely fast, about

3  108 m/s in a vacuum. Light, however, is slowed down by the
presence of matter. The extent to which this occurs depends on
what the light is traveling through. Light travels at about 3/4 of its
vacuum speed (0.75 c ) in water and about 2/3 its vacuum speed
(0.67 c ) in glass. The reason for this slowing is because when
light strikes an atom it must interact with its electron cloud. If
light travels from one medium to another, and if the speeds in
these media differ, then light is subject to refraction (a changing
of direction at the interface).
 Reflection & Refraction
At an interface between two media, both reflection and refraction can
occur. The angles of incidence, reflection, and refraction are all measured
with respect to the normal. The angles of incidence and reflection are
always the same. If light speeds up upon entering a new medium, the angle
of refraction, r , will be greater than the angle of incidence, as depicted on
the left. If the light slows down in the new medium, r will be less than
the angle of incidence, as shown on the right.

r
normal

normal
r
 Index of Refraction, n
The index of refraction of a substance is the ratio of the speed in light
in a vacuum to the speed of light in that substance:
c
n=
v
Medium n
n = Index of Refraction
Vacuum 1
c = Speed of light in vacuum
Air (STP) 1.00029
v = Speed of light in medium
Water (20º C) 1.33
Note that a large index of refraction
Ethanol 1.36
corresponds to a relatively slow
light speed in that medium. Glass ~1.5
Diamond 2.42
 i
Snell’s Law ni
nr
r
Snell’s law states that a ray of light bends in
such a way that the ratio of the sine of the
angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of
refraction is constant. Mathematically,

ni sin i = nr sinr
Here ni is the index of refraction in the original
medium and nr is the index in the medium the
light enters.  i and r are the angles of
incidence and refraction, respectively.
Willebrord
Snell
 Brewster Angle
The Brewster angle is the angle of incidence that produces reflected
and refracted rays that are perpendicular.
From Snell, n1 sinb = n2 sin.
n2 
α = b since  +  = 90º, 
and b +  = 90º. 
n1
b b
β =  since  +  = 90º,
and  +  = 90º. Thus,
n1 sinb = n2 sin = n2 sin = n2 cosb

tanb = n2 /n1 Sir David

Brewster
 Critical Angle
The incident angle that causes nr
the refracted ray to skim right
ni
along the boundary of a c
substance is known as the critical
angle, c. The critical angle is the
angle of incidence that produces From Snell,
an angle of refraction of 90º. If n1 sinc = n2 sin 90
the angle of incidence exceeds
the critical angle, the ray is Since sin 90 = 1, we
completely reflected and does have n1 sinc = n2 and
not enter the new medium. A the critical angle is
critical angle only exists when
light is attempting to penetrate a n
c = sin -1 r
medium of higher optical density
than it is currently traveling in. ni
 Total Internal Reflection
Total internal reflection occurs when light attempts to pass
from a more optically dense medium to a less optically dense
medium at an angle greater than the critical angle. When this
occurs there is no refraction, only reflection.

n1 n2 > n1
n2   > c

Total internal reflection can be used for practical applications

like fiber optics.
 Fiber Optics
Fiber optic lines are strands of glass or
transparent fibers that allows the transmission
of light and digital information over long
distances. They are used for the telephone
system, the cable TV system, the internet,
medical imaging, and mechanical engineering
spool of optical fiber inspection.

Optical fibers have many advantages over

copper wires. They are less expensive,
thinner, lightweight, and more flexible. They
aren’t flammable since they use light signals
instead of electric signals. Light signals from
one fiber do not interfere with signals in
nearby fibers, which means clearer TV A fiber optic wire
reception or phone conversations.
Continued…
 Fiber Optics Cont.
Fiber optics are often long strands
of very pure glass. They are very
thin, about the size of a human
hair. Hundreds to thousands of
them are arranged in bundles
(optical cables) that can transmit
light great distances. There are
three main parts to an optical
fiber:
• Core- the thin glass center where light travels.
• Cladding- optical material (with a lower index of refraction
than the core) that surrounds the core that reflects light back into
the core.
• Buffer Coating- plastic coating on the outside of an optical
fiber to protect it from damage. Continued…
Light travels through the core of a
fiber optic by continually Fiber Optics (cont.)
reflecting off of the cladding. Due
to total internal reflection, the
cladding does not absorb any of
the light, allowing the light to There are two types of optical
travel over great distances. Some fibers:
of the light signal will degrade • Single-mode fibers- transmit
over time due to impurities in the one signal per fiber (used in
glass. cable TV and telephones).
• Multi-mode fibers- transmit
multiple signals per fiber (used
in computer networks).
Mirage Pictures
 Mirages
Mirages are caused by the refracting properties of a
non-uniform atmosphere.
Several examples of mirages include seeing “puddles”
ahead on a hot highway or in a desert and the lingering
daylight after the sun is below the horizon.

More Mirages
Continued…
 Inferior Mirages
A person sees a puddle ahead on
the hot highway because the road
heats the air above it, while the
air farther above the road stays
cool. Instead of just two layers,
hot and cool, there are really
many layers, each slightly hotter than the layer above it. The cooler air has a
slightly higher index of refraction than the warm air beneath it. Rays of
light coming toward the road gradually refract further from the normal,
more parallel to the road. (Imagine the wheels and axle: on a light ray
coming from the sky, the left wheel is always in slightly warmer air than the
right wheel, so the left wheel continually moves faster, bending the axle
more and more toward the observer.) When a ray is bent enough, it
surpasses the critical angle and reflects. The ray continues to refract as it
heads toward the observer. The “puddle” is really just an inverted image of
the sky above. This is an example of an inferior mirage, since the cool are is
above the hot air.
 Superior Mirages
Superior mirages occur when a
layer of cool air is beneath a layer
of warm air. Light rays are bent
downward, which can make an
object seem to be higher in the air
and inverted. (Imagine the
wheels and axle on a ray coming
from the boat: the right wheel is
continually in slightly warmer air
than the left wheel. Thus, the right
wheel moves slightly faster and
bends the axle toward the
observer.) When the critical angle
is exceeded the ray reflects. These
mirages usually occur over ice, snow, or cold water. Sometimes superior images
are produced without reflection. Eric the Red, for example, was able to see
Greenland while it was below the horizon due to the light gradually refracting
and following the curvature of the Earth.
 Dispersion of Light
Dispersion is the separation of light into a spectrum by refraction. The
index of refraction is actually a function of wavelength. For longer
wavelengths the index is slightly small. Thus, red light refracts less than
violet. (The pic is exaggerated.) This effect causes white light to split
into it spectrum of colors. Red light travels the fastest in glass, has a
smaller index of refraction, and bends the least. Violet is slowed down
the most, has the largest index, and bends the most. In other words: the
higher the frequency, the greater the bending.
 Atmospheric Optics
There are many natural occurrences of light optics in our atmosphere.
One of the most common of these is
the rainbow, which is caused by
water droplets dispersing sunlight.
Others include arcs, halos, cloud
iridescence, and many more.
Photo gallery of atmospheric optics.
 Rainbows A rainbow is a spectrum
formed when sunlight is
dispersed by water droplets in
the atmosphere. Sunlight
incident on a water droplet is
refracted. Because of
dispersion, each color is
refracted at a slightly different
angle. At the back surface of
the droplet, the light undergoes
total internal reflection. On the
way out of the droplet, the light is once more refracted and dispersed.
Although each droplet produces a complete spectrum, an observer will
only see a certain wavelength of light from each droplet. (The wavelength
depends on the relative positions of the sun, droplet, and observer.)
Because there are millions of droplets in the sky, a complete spectrum is
seen. The droplets reflecting red light make an angle of 42o with respect to
the direction of the sun’s rays; the droplets reflecting violet light make an
angle of 40o.
Primary Rainbow
Secondary Secondary Rainbow
The secondary rainbow is a rainbow of radius
51, occasionally visible outside the primary
rainbow. It is produced when the light
Primary
entering a cloud droplet is reflected twice
internally and then exits the droplet. The color
spectrum is reversed in respect to the primary
rainbow, with red appearing on its inner edge.
Alexander’s
dark region
 Supernumerary Arcs
Supernumerary arcs are faint arcs of color
just inside the primary rainbow. They
occur when the drops are of uniform size.
If two light rays in a raindrop are
scattered in the same direction but have
take different paths within the drop, then
they could interfere with each other
constructively or destructively. The type
of interference that occurs depends on the
difference in distance traveled by the
rays. If that difference is nearly zero or a
multiple of the wavelength, it is
constructive, and that color is reinforced.
If the difference is close to half a
wavelength, there is destructive
interference.
 Real vs. Virtual Images
Real images are formed by mirrors or lenses when light rays
actually converge and pass through the image. Real images will be
located in front of the mirror forming them. A real image can be
projected onto a piece of paper or a screen. If photographic film
were placed here, a photo could be created.

Virtual images occur where light rays only appear to have

originated. For example, sometimes rays appear to be coming from
a point behind the mirror. Virtual images can’t be projected on
paper, screens, or film since the light rays do not really converge
there.

Examples are forthcoming.

 Plane Mirror
Object
Rays emanating from an object at point P
strike the mirror and are reflected with equal
angles of incidence and reflection. After
P P’
reflection, the rays continue to spread. If we
extend the rays backward behind the mirror, Virtual
they will intersect at point P’, which is the Image
image of point P. To an observer, the rays
appear to come from point P’, but no source is
there and no rays actually converging there .
For that reason, this image at P’ is a virtual
image. do di

O I
The image, I, formed by a plane mirror
of an object, O, appears to be a
distance di , behind the mirror, equal to
the object distance do.
Animation Continued…
 Concave and Convex Mirrors
Concave and convex mirrors are curved mirrors similar to portions
of a sphere.

light rays light rays

Concave mirrors reflect light Convex mirrors reflect light

from their inner surface, like from their outer surface, like
the inside of a spoon. the outside of a spoon.
 Magnification
hi
By definition, m =
ho
m = magnification
hi = image height (negative means inverted)
ho = object height

Magnification is simply the ratio of image height

to object height. A positive magnification means
an upright image.
Polarization
 EM Waves
• Light is an electromagnetic wave. EM waves are transverse.
Thus, the electrical field can vibrate in any direction
perpendicular to the direction of propagation. Most light sources
(candles, incandescent light bulbs etc..) emit light that is
unpolarized – the electric field has all possible directions of
vibrations.
• However it is possible to have polarized light.
Polarized light occurs when the vibrations of the
electrical field are confined to one plane.
 Ways to polarize Light
• 1. Pass the light through a polarizing filter. A Polaroid
sheet has polymers where the molecules are aligned in
one direction. In ideal situations, a Polaroid transmits
50% of the unpolarized light.
• Two Polaroid Sheets
If you pass light through two Polaroid sheets so that
their polarization axes are aligned, light will be
transmitted through both of them.
• If their axes are at right angles to each other, almost
no light will get through. When Polaroids are used in
pairs like this, the first is called the polarizer and the
second is called the analyzer.
 2. Reflection
• When an unpolarized wave reflects off a nonmetallic surface, the
reflected wave is partially plane polarized parallel to the surface. The
amount of polarization depends upon the angle (more later).

The reflected ray contains

more vibrations parallel to
the reflecting surface while
the transmitted beam
contains more vibrations at
right angles to these.
 Applications
• Knowing that reflected light or glare from
surfaces is at least partially plane polarized,
one can use Polaroid sunglasses. The
polarization axes of the lenses are vertical
as the glare usually comes from reflection
off horizontal surfaces.
Polarized Lens on a Camera

Reduce Reflections
 3. Scatter light
• When light(such as that from the sun) shines on particles, they can
absorb and then reradiate part of the light. The absorption and
reradiation of light is called scattering. Unpolarized light will be
partially plane polarized after scattering from small particles of
dust etc…The scattered light will be completely plane polarized if
scattered light is 90.0o from incident light. Thus if you look
straight up into the sky and rotate a polarizer, you will see the
transmitted light change in intensity. (Blue light is scattered more
than red light so the sky appears blue!!)
 Mathematics of Polarization
• • Two consecutive polarizers.
• – The first polarizer reduces the intensity by half.
• – The second polarizer reduces the intensity by another factor of cos2. This is
called Malus’s Law.
 Polarized Reflecting Light

• When an unpolarized light wave reflects off

a non-metallic surface, it can be completely
polarized, partially polarized or unpolarized
depending on the angle of incidence. A
completely polarized wave occurs for an
angle called Brewster’s angle (named after
Sir David Brewster)
• Complete polarization occurs when the
reflected beam and the refracted beam are 90o
to each other.
 What is Photoluminescence?

Photoluminescence (PL) is a process in which the substance

absorbs photons (EM radiation) and then re-radiates photons.
 E1

 What is Photoluminescence?
E0
 Basic Physics of luminescence
 Principle of PL
 How PL spectroscopy is performed?
 What information it captures?
 Examples Very powerful tool for low
 Applications dimensional systems,
especially for semiconductors!!
 Conclusion
Finding right solar material
and up-converted lasing
material is challenging!!
It operates from 200 nm to 900 nm wavelength.
Below 200 nm it needs vaccum because air can absorb much UV light.
UTM machine does not cover the time and field dependent fluorescence
decay.
Photoluminescence implies both Fluorescence and
Phosphorescence.
One broad peak may be
superposition of two or
several peaks: De-convolution is needed.
Main peak may accompanied with kinks, shoulder or satellites.

Fluorescence – ground state to singlet state and back.

Phosphorescence - ground state to triplet state and back.

 PL Spectroscopy
Fixed frequency laser
Measures spectrum by scanning spectrometer

PL Excitation Spectroscopy (PLE)

Detect at peak emission by varying
frequency
Effectively measures absorption

Time-resolved PL Spectroscopy
Short pulse laser + fast detector
Measures lifetimes and relaxation processes

Needs Tunable Laser Source