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Refraction of Light

Refraction is the bending of light when passing from one medium to another of different densities. The speed of light decreases in denser mediums, causing the light ray to bend towards the normal. Snell's law relates the refractive indices and angles of incidence and refraction. The critical angle is when the refracted ray is parallel to the surface. Above this angle, total internal reflection occurs and the light is reflected within the denser medium. Refraction and total internal reflection have applications in optics like cut diamonds and optical fibers.

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330 views

Refraction of Light

Refraction is the bending of light when passing from one medium to another of different densities. The speed of light decreases in denser mediums, causing the light ray to bend towards the normal. Snell's law relates the refractive indices and angles of incidence and refraction. The critical angle is when the refracted ray is parallel to the surface. Above this angle, total internal reflection occurs and the light is reflected within the denser medium. Refraction and total internal reflection have applications in optics like cut diamonds and optical fibers.

Uploaded by

suersh1_srivai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Refraction of Light

What is Refraction?
 Refraction is the bending of light as it
travels from one medium to another.
What causes refraction?

The difference in speed causes light


rays to bend (refracted ) when
traveling across different
transparent materials!!!
Refraction
 The change in direction of a wave as is
crosses the boundary between two media in
which the wave travels at different speeds.
Refraction
Higher speed (low dense)
Normal
Refracted ray
bends towards the
θi
Air normal
Glass
θr

Lower speed (high dense)


Refraction
Lower speed (high dense)
Normal

Refracted ray bends


θi away from the normal
Glass
Air θr

Higher speed (low dense)


Refraction
 In vacuum, light travels with a speed

c = 3.00 x 108 m/s


 In a transparent medium, (eg. water or
glass) the speed of light is slower than
its speed in vacuum.
What is “index of refraction”?

 The index of refraction (µ) is the ratio


of the speed of light (c) in vacuum to
that of the speed (v) in the medium.

µ = c/v
Index of Refraction

speed of light in vacuum


speed of light in material
How can we figure out the angle of
our refracted ray?

 We use Snell’s Law

 µ =sin i / sin r

Willebrord van
Roijen Snell
(1580-1626)
µ
1 2

Refractive index of
medium 2 with respect
to medium1
µ µ
1 2= 2/ 1µ
µ2 / µ1 = sin Ɵ1 /sin Ɵ2

µ2 / µ1 = V1 / V2
Snell’s Law
n1 sin 1  n2 sin  2
The critical angle
 The angle of incidence in the
denser medium, for that there is
no more refraction from the
incoming light
 Where θr = 90°
Critical angle
To find the critical angle use
snell’s law
µ2 / µ1 = sin Ɵ1 /sin Ɵ2

µ2 / µ1 = sin C /sin 90
1/ µ1 = sin C or µ1 =1/sin C
µ2 =1 for air , sin 90 =1
Total Internal reflection occurs…
 When light moves from a more dense
medium to a less dense medium

 if θi > θc

 Light will bounce away from


boundary = to angle of incidence
Total internal reflection
 When light moves from a dense
material to less dense material,

 If light comes into the boundary at a


large enough angle, i> C , no longer
refracts, reflects
refraction
Applications of TIR
-Brilliant cut diamond
Applications of TIR
-optical fibre for communication
Advantages of optical
fibre
•No interferencefrom
electromagnetic fields
Carry more information.

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