Abstract
This chapter deals with the effect of absorption on reflection properties. The absorption, or dissipation of electromagnetic energy within the medium, can be due to conductivity (as in metals, and in the ionosphere). However, good insulators can also be absorbers at high frequencies, where the electromagnetic field energy is converted to heat via molecular or electronic excitations. The absorption is included in the Maxwell equation (1.2) by allowing the dielectric function \( \varepsilon \) to take complex values. In general, the curl of B is the sum of terms proportional to \( \partial {\mathbf{E}}/\partial t \) and to the total current density. For non-magnetic media, and fields with the time variation \( {\text{e}}^{ - i\omega t} \), the form of (1.2) is retained, with the imaginary part of \( \varepsilon \) now proportional to the conductivity divided by the frequency (Born and Wolf 1970, Sect. 13.1). The simplest model for conducting media is that of an electron gas, with mean free time between collisions \( \tau \). This leads to the dielectric function (see for example Kittel 1966; Booker 1984; Budden 1985).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abelès F (1950) Recherches sur la propagation des ondes électromagnetiques sinusoidales dans les milieux stratifiés. Application aux couches minces. Annales de Physique 5:596–640
Agranovich VM, Mills DL (eds) (1982) Surface polaritons: electromagnetic waves at surfaces and interfaces. North-Holland, Amsterdam; In: Abelès F, Lopez-Rios T (eds) Surface polaritons at metal surfaces and interfaces
Allen TH (1976) Study of Al with a combined Auger electron spectrometer-ellipsometric system. J Vac Sci Technol 13:112–115
Azzam RMA (1985) Explicit equations for the polarizing angles of a high-reflectance substrate coated by a transparent thin film. J Opt Soc Amer A 2:480–482
Barlow HM, Brown J (1962) Radio surface waves. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Bennett JM, Bennett HE (1978) Polarization, Chap. 10. In: Driscoll WG and Vaughan W (eds) Handbook of optics. McGraw Hill, New York
Boardman AD (ed) (1982) Electromagnetic surface modes. Wiley, New York
Born M and Wolf E (1970) Principles of optics, 4th edn. Pergamon, New York
Booker H G (1984) Cold plasma waves. Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht
Budden K G (1985) The propagation of radio waves. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Burnstein E and DeMartini F (eds.) (1974) Polaritons. Pergamon, New York
Ginzburg V L (1964) The propagation of electromagnetic waves in plasmas. Pergamon, Oxford
Kitajima H, Fujita K, Cizmic H (1984) Zero reflection from a dielectric film on a metal substrate at oblique angles of incidence. Appl Opt 23:1937–1939
Kittel C (1966) Introduction to solid state physics, Wiley
Kretschmann E, Raether H (1968) Radiative decay of non radiative surface plasmons by light, Zeit. für Naturforschung, 23a, 2135–2136
Landau LD, Lifshitz EM (1960) Electrodynamics of continuous media, Pergamon, Oxford
McIntyre JDE (1976) Optical reflection spectroscopy of chemisorbed monolayers, Chap. 11, In: Seraphin (ed)
Otto A (1968) Excitation of nonradiative surface plasma waves in silver by the method of frustrated total reflection. Zeit. für Physik 216:398–410
Otto A (1976), Spectroscopy of surface polaritons by attenuated total reflection, Chap. 13, In: Seraphin (ed)
Potter RF (1969) Pseudo-Brewster angle technique for determining the optical constants, Ch. 16. In: Nudelman S et al. (eds) Optical properties of solids. Springer, Berlin
Ruiz-Urbieta M, Sparrow EM (1972) Reflection polarization by a transparent-film-absorbing substrate system. J Opt Soc Am 62:1188–1194
Seraphin BO (ed) (1976) Optical properties of solids: new developments, North Holland, Amsterdam
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lekner, J. (2016). Absorption. In: Theory of Reflection. Springer Series on Atomic, Optical, and Plasma Physics, vol 87. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23627-8_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23627-8_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23626-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23627-8
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)