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Ray Theory: by Deepa Mathew

This document summarizes basic laws of ray theory and geometric optics, including that light rays travel in straight lines in a homogeneous medium, and are reflected or refracted at boundaries. It defines refractive index as the ratio of light's speed in a vacuum to its speed in a material. When light moves between materials with different refractive indices, it will bend due to Snell's law. Total internal reflection occurs when the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle. Numerical aperture characterizes an optical system's ability to collect light.

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Deepa Jerin
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33 views

Ray Theory: by Deepa Mathew

This document summarizes basic laws of ray theory and geometric optics, including that light rays travel in straight lines in a homogeneous medium, and are reflected or refracted at boundaries. It defines refractive index as the ratio of light's speed in a vacuum to its speed in a material. When light moves between materials with different refractive indices, it will bend due to Snell's law. Total internal reflection occurs when the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle. Numerical aperture characterizes an optical system's ability to collect light.

Uploaded by

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

By
Deepa Mathew
Basic laws of ray theory/geometric optics

• In a homogeneous medium, light rays are straight lines.


• Light may be absorbed or reflected
• Reflected ray lies in the plane of incidence and angle of incidence will be equal to
the angle of reflection.
• At the boundary between two media of different refractive indices, the refracted ray
will lie in the plane of incidence. Snell’s Law will give the relationship between the
angles of incidence and refraction.
Reflection of light 
Refraction of light
Refractive Index
• Refraction is the bending of light in a particular medium due to the speed of light in
that medium.
• The speed of light in any medium can be given by
• V=c/n, Here n is the refractive index of that medium.
• Refractive Index :It is defined as the ratio of velocity of light in vaccum to
velocity light in matrial
• When a ray of light is incident at the interface of two media with different refractive
indices, it will bend either towards or away from the normal depending on the
refractive indices of the media.
Snell’s Law
• n1<n2:bent towards normal
• n1>n2:bent away from normal
Critical Angle

When the angle of refraction is 90 degrees to the normal, the refracted ray is parallel to the interface
between the two media. In this case, the incident angle is called the critical angle.
Total Internal Reflection
• If the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle for a given setting, the
resulting type of reflection is called Total Internal Reflection
Acceptance angle
• In an optical fiber, a light ray undergoes its first refraction at the air-core interface.
The angle at which this refraction occurs is crucial because this particular angle will
dictate whether the subsequent internal reflections will follow the principle of Total
Internal Reflection. This angle, at which the light ray first encounters the core of an
optical fiber, is called the Acceptance angle.
Acceptance Cone
Numerical Aperture
• Numerical Aperture is a characteristic of any optical system.
• Numerical aperture is the ability of the optical system to collect all of the light
incident on it, in one area.

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