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Microscopic Origin of the Index of Refraction

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Optics Near Surfaces and at the Nanometer Scale

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Abstract

We saw in Chap. 1 that the interaction of light with matter can be described by light scattering on each atom. Since the wavelength of light is much larger than the size of the atom, the atom can be described as an electron oscillator driven by the incident field. The wave scattered by the atom depends on the resonant frequency of the oscillator which in turn determines the phase and amplitude of the scattered wave.

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References

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Correspondence to Wolfgang Bacsa .

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Bacsa, W., Bacsa, R., Myers, T. (2020). Microscopic Origin of the Index of Refraction. In: Optics Near Surfaces and at the Nanometer Scale. SpringerBriefs in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58983-7_5

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