MadSci Network: Physics
Query:

Re: Internal reflection at a glass/metal interface?

Date: Sun Mar 21 12:09:14 2010
Posted By: Tom Hancewicz, Staff, Advanced Measurement and Data Science
Area of science: Physics
ID: 1268526445.Ph
Message:

Firstly, in order to answer this question accurately, some additional information is required - thickness of the metal layer, wavelength of light, etc., but also, some of your assumptions are not correct.

Metals obey the same laws of electrodynamics as any other material. This is an immensely important point. In other words, the same rules and equations are used to describe the interaction of light with both metals and non- metals.

There is a real and imaginary part to the refractive index of all materials. The imaginary part is very small in non-metals and the same order of magnitude as the real part in metals. As for the reflection at different angles, there is always some loss on reflection from any surface and a metal surface will reflect light at any angle assuming the low-wavelength case where the metal is opaque to the light. The surface reflection properties of a material are a function of the surface and not of the material. I would suggest you look at the following references for a complete answer to your inquiry:

MadSci post: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/may97/863034503.Ph.r.html

The basis for the post is from the Feynman lectures:

Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands,
The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Addison-Wesley 1964.
Volume 2, Chapter 32, Refractive Index of Dense Materials
Volume 2, Chapter 33, Reflection from Surfaces

Prof. Feynman provides all the insight and equations you will need to solve your problem.


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