Related papers: Refraction of light and conservation laws
We derive an exact expression for the radiation pressure of a quasi- monochromatic plane wave incident from the free space onto the flat surface of a semi-infinite dielectric medium. In order to account for the total optical momentum…
Reflection and refraction of light can be used to trap small dielectric particles in the geometrical optics regime. Absorption of light is usually neglected in theoretical calculations, but it is known that it occurs in the optical trapping…
Snell's law of light deflection between media with different indices of refraction is usually discussed in terms of the Maxwell electromagnetic wave theory. Snell's law may also be derived from a photon beam theory of light rays. This…
The relation between the angular transverse shifts of the beams reflected and transmitted at a plane interface of two isotropic transparent media is established. The derivation of this relation is based on the conservation law of the…
The general method to obtain solutions of the Maxwellian equations from scalar representatives is developed and applied to the diffraction of electromagnetic waves. Kirchhoff's integral is modified to provide explicit expressions for these…
An exact formulation of the propagation of a monochromatic wave packet impinging upon a transparent, homogeneous, isotropic and parallel slab at oblique incidence is presented. Approximate formulas are derived for low divergence Gaussian…
We derive from first principles the momentum exchange between a photon and a quantum mirror upon reflection, by considering the boundary conditions imposed by the mirror surface on the photon wave equation. We show that the system generally…
We present an elementary analysis of the effects on light reflected from a uniformly moving mirror by using the photon picture of light and the conservation laws for energy and momentum of the system photon-mirror. Such a dynamical approach…
Light refraction, i.e. the bending of the path of a light wave at the interface between two different dielectric media, is ubiquitous in optics. Refraction arises from the different speed of light and is unavoidable in continuous media…
Interfering liquid surface waves are generated by electrically driven vertical oscillations of two or more equispaced pins immersed in a liquid (water). The corresponding intensity distribution, resulting from diffraction of monochromatic…
Advances in micro-technology of the last years have made it possible to carry optics textbooks experiments over to atomic and molecular beams, such as diffraction by a double slit or transmission grating. The usual wave-optical approach…
A high-accuracy solution of the diffraction problem has become necessary for the treatment of certain special questions of statistical physics. This article reports the creation of a computer program that serves as an instrumental method of…
It is shown that a detailed sub microscopic consideration denies the wave-particle duality for both material particles and field particles, such as photons. In the case of particles, their \psi-wave function is interpreted as the particle's…
Lasers with wavelengths of the order of the atomic size are becoming available. We explore the behavior of light-matter interactions in this emergent field by considering the atomic Kapitza-Dirac effect. We derive the diffraction patterns,…
One of the problems of physics arguably greater in stature than even mathematical Hilberts problems is the mysterious nature of electromagnetic momentum in materials. In this paper we show that the difference between the Minkowski and…
Recent advances in the field of active soft matter promise a lot. Both, experimental advances and theoretical understanding point towards new material classes in reach, for example self-healing materials that might switch their properties…
Light propagation in a medium made of densely packed dielectric spheres is investigated by using a rigorous diffraction theory. It is shown that a substantial suppression of the local density of states occurs in spectral domains where the…
The quest to manipulate light propagation in ways not possible with natural media has driven the development of artificially structured metamaterials. One of the most striking effects is negative refraction, where the light beam deflects…
We treat continuum electrodynamics as an axiomatic formal theory based on the macroscopic Maxwell--Minkowski equations applied to a thermodynamically closed system consisting of an antireflection-coated block of a simple linear dielectric…
Refraction at the interface between two materials is fundamental to the interaction of light with photonic devices and to the propagation of light through the atmosphere at large. Underpinning the traditional rules for the refraction of an…