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Chemistry

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7 views

phy

Chemistry

Uploaded by

kk0239023
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INTRODUCTION

Total internal reflection is an optical


phenomenon that happens when a ray of light
strikes a medium boundary at an angle larger
than a particular critical angle with respect to
the normal to the surface. If the reflective index
is lower on the other side of the boundary and
the incident angle is greater than the critical
angle, no light can pass through and all of the
light is reflected. The critical angle is the angle
of incidence above which the total internal
reflectance occurs.
When a light beam crosses a boundary between
materials with different kinds of refractive
indices, the light beam will partially reflected.
However, if the angle of incidence is greater ( i.e.
the ray is closer to being parallel to the
boundary ) than the critical angle – the angle of
incidence at which light is refracted such to that
it travels along the boundary – then the light will
stop crossing the boundary altogether and
instead be totally reflected back internally. This
can only occur where light travels from a
medium with a higher [ n1=higher refractive
index] to one with a lower refractive index
[n2=lower refractive index]. For example, it will
occur when passing from glass to air, but not
when passing from air to glass.
OPTICAL DESCRIPTION
Total internal reflection can be demonstrated
using a semi-circular block of glass or plastic. A
“ray box” shines a narrow beam of light (a
“Ray”) onto the glass. The semi-circular shape
ensure that a ray pointing towards the centre of
the flat face will hit the air/glass boundary of
the curved surface. At the glass/air boundary of
the flat surface, what happens will depend on
the angle ? Where is θe the critical angle
measurement which is caused by the sun or a
light source (measured normal to the surface):
• If θ<θe , the ray will split. Some of the ray
will reflect of the boundary, and some will
refract as it passes through. This is not total
internal reflection.
• If θ>θe, the entire ray reflects from the
boundary. None passes through. This is
called total internal reflection.

This physical property makes optical fibres


useful and prismatic binoculars possible. It
is also what gives diamond their distinctive
sparkle, as diamond has a. Unusually high
refractive index.
CRITICAL ANGLE
The critical angle is the angle of incidence
above which total internal reflection
occurs. The angle of incidence measured
with respect to the normal at the refractive
boundary ( see diagram illustrating Snell’s
law). Consider a light ray passing from glass
into air. The light emanating from the
interface is bent towards the glass. When
the incident angle is increased sufficiently,
the transmitted angle (in air) reaches 90
degrees. It is at this point no light is
transmitted into air. The critical angle is
given by Snell’s law.
n 1 sinθi = n 2 sinθt

Rearranging Snell’s law, we get incidence

Sinθi = n 1/n 2 sinθt

To find the critical angle, we find the value


for θi when θt = 90° and thus sinθt =1. The
resulting value of is equal to the critical
angle θc.
Now, we can solve for θi , and we get the
equation for the critical angle:
Θc = θi = sin -¹(n2/n1)
If the incident ray is precisely at the critical
angle, the refracted ray is tangent to the
boundary at the point of incidence. If for
example, visible light were travelling
through acrylic glass ( with an index of
refraction of 1.50) into air (with an index of
refraction of 1.00), the calculation would
give the critical angle for light from acrylic
into air, which is

θc = sin -¹ (1.00/1.50) = 41.8


PHASE SHIFT UPON TOTAL INTERNAL
REFLECTION

A lesser-known aspect of total internal


reflection is that the reflected light has an
angle dependent phase shift between the
reflected and incident light.
Mathematically this means that the Fresnel
reflection coefficient becomes a complex
rather than a real number. This phase shift
is polarization dependent and grows as the
incidence angle deviates further from the
critical angle towards grazing incidence.
The polarization dependent phase shift is
long known and was used by Fresnel to
design the Fresnel rhomb which allows
transforming circular polarization to linear
polarization and vice versa for a wide
range of wavelengths ( colour), in contrast
to the quarter wave plate. The polarization
dependent phase shift is also the reason
why TE and TM guided modes have
different dispersion relations.

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