31.

Refraction & TIR

Topic 5
Learning Objectives
 Interpret incident, reflected and refracted waves at boundaries
between media.
 Solve problems using Snell’s Law, the critical angle and total internal
reflection.
 Describe refraction at a plane surface
 Calculate the refractive index of a substance, n = c/c s
 Recall the refractive index of air to be about 1
 Identify and use Snell’s law.
 Describe total internal reflection, step index optical fibres and
dispersion.
 Calculate critical angle.
 Ray Diagrams : Recap
Within the optics topic it is convenient to show the passage and
behaviour of light as “ray diagrams”. These should:
1. Be drawn with a pencil and ruler
2. Contain exactly 1 arrow head per ray “branch”
3. Show the normal (typically as a dotted line) at right angles to
whatever it is normal to!
 Refraction: Key Concepts
Refraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in
its wave speed. Most commonly seen when a wave passes from
one medium to another.
 Refraction of light in a glass block.

When light enters a denser medium, like glass, at a non-zero angle, it changes
direction due to the decrease in speed. We say the light has refracted.

Usually, when a ray of light strikes an interface between two media, there is both
reflection and refraction.
 Snell’s law.

Medium
1.

Medium
2.

Experiments (and theory) show that:

Where is the angle of incidence, is the angle of refraction, and and is

the speeds of the wave in the two media. This relationship is known as
Snell’s law. This form of the law applies to all waves.
Why does light bend when it enters glass?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLmpNM0sgYk
Why does light travel slower in glass?
Refraction and Snell’s Law.
In the case of light only, we usually define a quantity called the
refractive index of a given medium, , as:

Where is the speed of light in a vacuum and is the speed of light in

the medium.
So for light, Snell’s law may be written as:

Normally, stated as:

Note: since the speed of light is always greatest in a vacuum, the

refractive index of any medium other than a vacuum is always larger
than1.
Finding the refractive index of a glass/perspex block.
Using a light ray box, a protractor and a ruler, determine the
refractive index of your block. Make sure that you take a suitable
range of measurements so that you can plot a graph. You will use the
graph to determine the refractive index and its uncertainty.
 Refraction: Classic Experiment
The classic practical for refraction involves sending a single ray of
light from air through glass blocks at different angles...

Incident ray

Angle of incidence (i)

Angle of refraction (r)

Refracted ray

Emergent ray
 Refraction: Classic
Experiment
The classic practical for refraction involves sending a single ray of
light from air through glass blocks at different angles...

• What was the value for the refractive index of glass?

• Calculate the percentage error for your value.
• What was difficult about doing this practical?
• What are main sources of error in the method/ results
obtained, in finding the refractive index of glass?
• What was the uncertainty in your measurements?
 Key Findings
From the classic practical we reach the following conclusions:
The light ray bends towards the normal when travelling from less
optically dense to more optically dense materials (e.g. air to glass)
The light ray bends away from the normal when travelling from more
optically dense to less optically dense materials (e.g. Glass to air)
When parallel to the normal, refraction appears to not apply since
the ray continues along the normal. Refraction (as in change of
speed) still occurs it just has no effect on the direction.
Refractive index
By definition the refractive index of a vacuum (an approximately of
air) is 1.

Media with high values of refractive index are called optically

dense.
Refractive index.
If one knows the refractive index of a medium, you can calculate the speed
of light in that medium.

For example, in a glass with n=1.5, the speed of light is:

Question.
Light of wavelength 686nm in air enters water, making an angle of 40.4 o
with the normal. Determine:
(a) The angle of refraction
(b) The wavelength of light in water
(c) The speed of the light in water
(d) The frequency of the light in air. Does the frequency change when it
enters the water?
(The refractive index of water is 1.33)
20
 Answers

1. 37° to two significant figures (37.2°) (2 marks)

2. 39° to two significant figures (39.3°) (2 marks)
3. 31° to two significant figures (31.3°) (2 marks)
4. 2  108 ms−1 (2 marks)
5. 1.31 to three significant figures (3
marks)
Dispersion of white light in a prism.

It can be shown that white light when transmitted through a prism

will split up into the colours of the rainbow This phenomenon is
called dispersion.

Why does the white light disperse?

What does the experiment tell us about white light?
Dispersion of white light in a prism
The refractive index of a medium depends slightly on wavelength, so
rays with the same angle of incidence but of different wavelength
are refracted by different angles.

Look at the above image.

For which colour of light is the refractive index greatest in the glass
prism? What is wrong with the above diagram?
What do you think determines the colour of light, its wavelength or
its frequency, or both?
The variation of refractive index with
wavelength for various glasses.

Which has the highest refractive index, red or blue light in the various
glasses?
Total Internal reflection
An interesting phenomenon occurs when light moving in an optically
dense medium arrives at an interface with a less dense medium, for
example light in water reaching the boundary with air. Some light is
reflected and some is refracted, as shown below.

What do you think will happen Refracted

ray
if the angle of incidence, is
increased?

Reflected
ray
Using Phet: Bending Light, change the top material to be water and the below material
to be air. Then find the angle of incidence in which the angle of refraction is exactly 90 o.
This angle of incidence is known as the critical angle.

PhET: Bending light, can be accessed from the next slide.

 Total internal reflection.

The diagrams above shows what happens when light passes from glass to air.
The angle of incidence in which the angle of refraction is 900 is called the
critical angle. Using a ray box and a semi-circular Perspex block, determine
the critical angle of Perspex.
Critical angle
Finding the critical angle for a Perspex block.

Once you have found the critical angle, use Snell’s law to find the
refractive index of Perspex.
Compare your value to the accepted value.
Look at the above diagram, what is wrong with the diagram?
Critical angle.
Using Snell’s law to find the refractive index:

,
but and refractive index of air

hence refractive index of the medium is as follows:

Read the following two topics from
your online textbook.
Topic 5.1 Refraction of light
Topic 5.2 More about refraction

Make notes and answer the summary questions.

Total internal reflection (TIR).
Note: there is no refracted ray when the angle of incidence is greater
than the critical angle; there is just the reflected ray and so we call
this phenomenon total internal reflection.
One important application of TIR is the propagation of digital
signals, carrying information, in optical fibres. The signal stays within
the core.

What other uses are there for TIR?

 Optical fibres
Total internal reflection takes place at the core-cladding boundary.
At any point where two fibres are in direct contact, light would cross
from one fibre to the other if there were no cladding. Such crossover
would mean that the signals would not be secure, as they would
reach the wrong destination.
 Optical fibres: Modal dispersion
The core must be very narrow to prevent modal (i.e., multipath)
dispersion. This occurs in a wide core because light travelling along
the axis of the core travels a shorter distance per metre of fibre than
light that repeatedly undergoes total internal reflection. A pulse of
light sent along a wide core would become longer than it ought to
be. If it was too long, it would merge with the next pulse.
Pulse dispersion.
Pulse dispersion also occurs if white light is used instead of
monochromatic light (light of a single wavelength). This material
dispersion (sometimes referred to as spectral dispersion) is because
the speed of light in the glass of the optical fibre depends on the
wavelength of light travelling through it. Violet light travels more
slowly than red light in glass.

The difference in speed would cause white light pulses in optical

fibres to become longer, as the violet component falls behind the
faster red component of each pulse. So the light (or infrared
radiation) used must be monochromatic to prevent pulse merging.

Now complete the summary questions that are on page 75 of your textbook.
Answers

1. The two conditions for a light ray to undergo TIR at a boundary between two
transparent substances are:
(i) The angle of incidence must be greater than the critical angle
(ii) The light must be travelling in the medium where the refractive index is
greater than the refractive index of the other medium, i.e., the light is
travelling in a higher optically dense medium to a lower optically dense
medium.

b) (i)

(ii)
2. a)

b) (i)

(ii) The angle of incidence of the light ray at Q must also be .

(iii) , therefore light does not TIR at Q.

 3. a)

𝑛=1.40 𝑛=1.55

3. b) (i)

(ii)
4. (a) i)A coherent fibre bundle is an ordered arrangement of very small-diameter optical
fibres. Typically, the bundle is comprised of many thousand fibres, each of which occupies
the same relative position in the matrix at either end of the bundle.

ii) The fibre bundle needs to be coherent so that the endoscope produces an accurate
image of the body part that the endocope is being used to look at it. If the fibre bundle
was not coherent, then no image would be seen.

(b) i) An optical fibre used in communication is composed of a core surrounded by a layer

of cladding of lower refractive index so that the critical angle is not too large, and also so
that light cannot cross from one fibre to another, which could happen if there was no
cladding.

(ii) The core of an optical communications fibre needs to be narrow so that the angle of
incidence that the light makes with the boundary between the core and the cladding will
always be greater than the critical angle thus ensuring that TIR occurs. The narrower the
optical fibre core, the greater the angle of incidence. It also decreases modal dispersion.
What are the mains applications of optical fibres?

Broadcasting television
Communication - the uses of optical fibre are significant
for transmitting and sending signals. Due to their lighter
weight and flexibility, they are widely chosen, and they
increase the accuracy and speed of the signal, which are
highly appreciated characteristics. As a result, even the
bulk amount of information is sent quickly.
Medical industry – endoscopes
Lighting and decorations
Mechanical inspections – inspect places that are at fault but
are hard to reach.
Do some research and make your own notes on how optical fibres
are used for endoscopes.
Optics
Questions
1. A ray of light, travelling in air, passes into a glass block at an angle of 65° to the
normal in air. The refractive index of glass is 1.5.Calculate the angle of
refraction.

2. A ray of light, travelling in glass, passes through the glass–air boundary at an

angle of 25° to the normal in the glass. The refractive index of glass is 1.5.
Calculate the angle of refraction.

3. A ray of light, travelling in air, passes into water. The angle of refraction is 23°.
The refractive index of water is 1.33. Calculate the angle of incidence.

4. The refractive index of acrylic glass is 1.49. The speed of light in air is
approximately 3  108 ms−1.Calculate the speed of light in acrylic glass.

5. A ray of light, travelling in liquid water, passes into an ice cube at an angle of 25.5°
to the normal in water. The ray of light is refracted to an angle of 25.9° to the
normal in the ice. The refractive index of liquid water is 1.33. Calculate the
refractive index of ice.
[2
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[1
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[3
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[2
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Question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q82euus-9o

Calculate angle 65.6 Degrees