Refraction of Light
Refraction is a change in the direction of light rays when they travel from one medium to another. It is the bending of light when it goes through different media.
Angle of Refraction
Light is considered by many scientists to have dual nature, both particle nature and wave nature. First, Particle nature is one in which we consider a stream of packets of energy called photons. Second, Wave nature is considering light as electromagnetic radiation whereas part of it is perceived by humans. Visible spectrum defined by humans lies in a range of 400 to 700 nm wavelengths.
Index of Refraction of Diamond
Diamond, the world’s hardest naturally occurring material and mineral known, is a solid form of the element carbon. The atoms are arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. They exist in a huge variety of colours. Also, they are one of the best conductors of heat and have a very high melting point.
A beam of white light is incident on the surface of a diamond at an angle θa. (Figure 1) Since the index of refraction depends on the light's wavelength, the different colors that comprise white light will spread out as they pass through the diamond. For example, the indices of refraction in diamond are nred=2.410 for red light and nblue=2.450 for blue light. Thus, blue light and red light are refracted at different angles inside the diamond, as shown in the picture. The surrounding air has nair=1.000. Note that the angles in the figure are not to scale.
Now consider θc, the angle at which the blue refracted ray hits the bottom surface of the diamond. If θc is larger than the critical angle θcrit, the light will not be refracted out into the air, but instead it will be totally internally reflected back into the diamond. Find θcrit.
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