Light Propagation in Linear Optical Media

Glen D. Gillen, Katharina Gillen, Shekhar Guha

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351831352
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencias físicas
• Subtopic: Óptica y luz

Light Propagation in Linear Optical Media describes light propagation in linear media by expanding on diffraction theories beyond what is available in classic optics books. In one volume, this book combines the treatment of light propagation through various media, interfaces, and apertures using scalar and vector diffraction theories.

After covering the fundamentals of light and physical optics, the authors discuss light traveling within an anisotropic crystal and present mathematical models for light propagation across planar boundaries between different media. They describe the propagation of Gaussian beams and discuss various diffraction models for the propagation of light. They also explore methods for spatially confining (trapping) cold atoms within localized light-intensity patterns.

This book can be used as a technical reference by professional scientists and engineers interested in light propagation and as a supplemental text for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses in optics.

1
Electromagnetic Fields and Origin of Light

In this chapter we review the concepts of

• electric and magnetic fields, E and H
• the vector and scalar potentials, A and φ
• the Hertz vector potential, π

We describe how to use the potentials to find E and H. discuss some properties of electromagnetic waves, and review a few fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics pertaining to the generation of light from moving charges and atoms.

1.1 Introduction

The importance of light to us is self evident. Our vision, arguably the most important of all our senses, is enabled by light. The energy needed for life to flourish on earth travels from the sun mainly in the form of light; light from other stars gives us the information needed to understand the universe; and investigation of properties of light absorbed or emitted by flames led to the understanding of the structure of atoms that everything is made out of. Scientists have tried to understand the nature and properties of light at least since the times of the ancient Chinese and Greek civilizations. The understanding that light is an electro-magnetic wave came about in the nineteenth century after the laws of electromagnetism were consolidated by James Clerk Maxwell into the set of “Maxwell’s equations” and since then most of the characteristics of light propagation have been described by using the solutions of Maxwell’s equations. The invention of laser in 1960 made it possible to easily obtain coherent and high intensity light, which accelerated advancements in many fields including physics, chemistry, and engineering, and ushered in the field of nonlinear optics with its many practical applications.

In many optics experiments, light generated by one or more lasers or some other sources travels through air, then through a set of optics, such as mirrors, prisms, polarizers, filters, gratings, lenses, etc. as well as through other linear or nonlinear optical media that can be solid, liquid, gaseous, liquid crystalline, plasma, or of some other form, in bulk, waveguide, thin film, or some ot...