Chapter 25

Raymond A.
Serway
John W. Jewett
Chapter 25
Reflection and Refraction of Light
25.1 The Nature of Light
• Before the beginning of the nineteenth
century, light was considered to be a stream
of particles
• The particles were emitted by the object being
viewed
• Newton was the chief architect of the particle
theory of light
• He believed the particles left the object and
stimulated the sense of sight upon entering the
eyes
• Christian Huygens (in 1678) argued the light
might be some sort of a wave motion
• Thomas Young (in 1801) provided the first
clear demonstration of the wave nature of
light
• He showed that light rays interfere with each
other
• Such behavior could not be explained by particles
• During the nineteenth century, other
developments led to the general acceptance
of the wave theory of light
• Maxwell asserted that light was a form of high-
frequency electromagnetic wave
• Hertz confirmed Maxwell’s predictions
• Some experiments could not be explained by
the wave nature of light
• The photoelectric effect was a major
phenomenon not explained by waves
• When light strikes a metal surface, electrons are
sometimes ejected from the surface
• The kinetic energy of the ejected electron is
independent of the frequency of the light
• In view of these developments, light must be
regarded as having a dual nature
• In some cases, light acts like a wave, and in
others, it acts like a particle
25.2 The Ray Model in Geometric
Optics
• Geometric optics involves the study of the
propagation of light
• The ray approximation is used to represent
beams of light
• A ray is a straight line drawn along the
direction of propagation of a single wave
• It shows the path of the wave as it travels
through space
• It is a simplification model
Optics
• TheRay
raysApproximation
are straight
lines perpendicular to the
wave fronts
• With the ray
approximation, we
assume that a wave
moving through a
medium travels in a
straight line in the
direction of its rays
Optics
• Consider a wave which
meets a barrier with << d
• d is the diameter of the
opening
• The individual waves
emerging from the opening
continue to move in a
straight line
Optics
• This is the assumption of the
ray approximation
• Good for the study of
mirrors, lenses, prisms, and
associated optical
instruments
Optics
• Consider a wave that
meets a barrier whose
size of the opening is on
the order of the
wavelength, ~ d
• The waves spread out
from the opening in all
directions
• The waves undergo
diffraction
Optics
• Next, consider a wave
meets a barrier whose
size of the opening is
much smaller than the
wavelength,  >> d
• The diffraction is so great
that the opening can be
approximated as a point
source
25.3 Analysis Model: Wave Under
Reflection
• A ray of light, the incident ray, travels in a
medium
• When it encounters a boundary with a second
medium, part of the incident ray is reflected
back into the first medium
• This means it is directed backward into the first
medium
Reflection
• Specular reflection is
reflection from a smooth
surface
• The reflected rays are
parallel to each other
• Specular reflection is
necessary for the
formation of clear images
from reflecting surfaces
Reflection
• Diffuse reflection is
reflection from a rough
surface
• The reflected rays travel
in a variety of directions
• A surface behaves as a
smooth surface as long
as the surface variations
are much smaller than
the wavelength of the
light
Reflection
• The normal is a line
perpendicular to the surface
• It is at the point where the
incident ray strikes the surface
• The incident ray makes an
angle of θ1 with the normal
• The reflected ray makes an
angle of θ1’ with the normal
Reflection
• The angle of reflection is equal to the angle of
incidence:
• This relationship is called the law of reflection

• In diffuse reflection, the law of reflection is
obeyed with respect to the local normal
• All reflection in your text is assumed to be
specular
Reflection
• The path of a light ray is reversible
• This property is useful for geometric
constructions
Reflection
• Applications of the law of reflection include
digital projection of movies, TV shows and
computer presentations
• A digital projector uses a digital micromirror
device
• Contains more than a million tiny mirrors that can be
individually tilted and each corresponds to a pixel in
the image
Reflection
Example 25.1 The Double-Reflected
Light Ray
Two mirrors make an angle of 120 with each
other. A ray is incident on mirror M1 at an
angle of 65 to the normal. Find the direction
of the ray after it is reflected from mirror M2.
Light Ray
• From the law of reflection, the first reflected ray
• From the triangle made by the first reflected ray

and the two mirrors, find the angle the reflected
ray makes with M2:
Light Ray
• Find the angle the first reflected ray makes with
the normal to M2:
• From the law of reflection, find the angle the

second reflected ray makes with the normal to
M2:
Refraction
• When a ray of light traveling through a
transparent medium encounters a boundary
leading into another transparent medium, part
of the energy is reflected and part enters the
second medium
• The ray that enters the second medium is
bent at the boundary
• This bending of the ray is called refraction
Refraction
• Consider the beam of light
incident on a Lucite block
• Ray  is the incident ray
• Ray  is the reflected ray
• Ray  is refracted into the
Lucite
• Ray  is internally reflected
in the Lucite
• Ray  is refracted as it
enters the air from the Lucite
Refraction
• The incident ray, the
reflected ray, the refracted
ray, and the normal all lie
on the same plane
• The path of the light
through the refracting
surface is reversible
Refraction
• The angle of refraction depends upon the
material and the angle of incidence:
• v1 is the speed of the light in the first medium

• v2 is its speed in the second medium
Refraction
• Light may refract into
a material where its
speed is lower
• The angle of refraction
is less than the angle
of incidence
• The ray bends toward
the normal
Refraction
• Light may refract into a
material where its
speed is higher
• The angle of refraction
is greater than the
angle of incidence
• The ray bends away
from the normal
Refraction
• When light travels in air, its speed is
c = 3.0×108 m/s
• on entry into a block of glass, its speed is
reduced to approximately 2.0×108 m/s
• When the light re-emerges into air, its speed
increases to its original value 3.0×108 m/s.
Refraction
• This process is very different from what
happens when a bullet is fired through a
block of wood
• The speed of the bullet is reduced as it moves
through the wood because some of its original
energy is used to tear apart the fibers of the
wood
• When the bullet enters the air again, it
emerges at a speed lower than that with
which it entered the block of wood
Refraction
• Consider a ray of light
entering a piece of glass
• The light may encounter an
atom, as in point A
• The atom may absorb the
light, oscillate, and reradiate
the light
• This can repeat at point B
• The absorption and radiation
cause the average speed of
the light moving through the
material to decrease
Refraction
• The speed of light is a maximum in a vacuum
• The index of refraction, n, of a medium can
be defined as
• For a vacuum, n = 1
• We assume n = 1 for air
• For other media, n > 1
• n is a dimensionless number greater than
unity
Refraction
• As light travels from one
medium to another, its
frequency remains
constant
• Consider the figure
• Wave fronts pass an
observer at point A in
medium 1 with a certain
frequency and are incident
on the boundary between
medium 1 and medium 2
Refraction
• The frequency at which
the wave fronts pass an
observer at point B in
medium 2 must equal the
frequency at which they
arrive at point A
• If that were not the case,
the wave fronts would
either pile up at the
boundary or be destroyed
or created at the boundary
Refraction
• Because this situation
does not occur, the
frequency must be a
constant as a light ray
passes from one medium
into another
Refraction
• Since v = ƒλ is valid in both media and
because f is constant, we have
v1 v2 so 1 2
• By dividing and making use of the definition of
the index of refraction, we get
•Which gives:
Refraction
• The index of refraction of any medium is given
by:
•  is the wavelength of light in vacuum

• nis the wavelength of light in the medium
• We find:
• θ1 is the angle of incidence

• θ2 is the angle of refraction
• This relationship is Snell’s law of refraction
Example 25.2 Angle of Refraction for
Glass
A light ray of wavelength 589 nm traveling
through air is incident on a smooth, flat slab of
crown glass at an angle of 30.0 to the normal.
(A) Find the angle of refraction.
• Rearrange Snell’s law of refraction to find sin 2:
Glass
• Solve for 2:
• Substitute indices of refraction and the incident

angle:
Glass
(B) Find the speed of this light once it enters the
glass
• Solve for the speed of light in the glass:
• Substitute numerical values:

Glass
(C) What is the wavelength of this light in the
glass?
• Find the wavelength in the glass:
Example 25.3 Light Passing Through
a Slab
A light beam passes from medium 1 to medium
2, with the latter medium being a thick slab of
material whose index of refraction is n2. Show
that the beam emerging into medium 1 from the
other side is parallel to the incident beam.
Example 25.3 Light Passing Through
a Slab
• Apply Snell’s law of refraction to the upper
surface:
• Apply Snell’s law to the lower surface:
• Substitute Equation (1) into Equation (2):

25.5 Dispersion and Prisms
• For a given material, the index of refraction
varies with the wavelength of the light passing
through the material
• This dependence of n on  is called
dispersion
• Snell’s Law indicates light of different
wavelengths is bent at different angles when
incident on a refracting material
• The index of refraction for
a material generally
decreases with increasing
wavelength
• Violet light (  400 nm)
bends more than red light
(  650 nm) when passing
into a refracting material
• Consider a ray of light
striking a prism
• The ray emerges
refracted from its
original direction of
travel by an angle ,
called the angle of
deviation
•  depends on the apex
angle  and the index of
refraction of the material
• Since all the colors
have different angles of
deviation, white light
will spread out into a
spectrum
• Violet deviates the most
• Red deviates the least
• The remaining colors are in
between
• Consider the formation of a
rainbow
• A ray of light strikes a drop
of water in the atmosphere.
• It undergoes both reflection
and refraction
• First refraction at the front of
the drop
• Violet light will deviate the most
• Red light will deviate the least
• At the back surface the light is
reflected
• It is refracted again as it returns to
the front surface and moves into
the air
• The rays leave the drop at
various angles
• The angle between the white light
and the most intense violet ray is
40°.
• The angle between the white light
and the most intense red ray is
42°.
• If a raindrop high in the sky
is observed, the red ray is
seen
• A drop lower in the sky would
direct violet light to the
observer
• The other colors of the
spectra lie in between the
red and the violet
• The Double
secondaryRainbow
rainbow is
fainter than the primary
and its colors are reversed
• The secondary rainbow
arises from light that makes
two reflections from the
interior surface before exiting
the raindrop
• Higher-order rainbows are
possible, but their intensity
is low
25.6 Huygens’s Principle
• In 1678 Huygens assumed that light consists
of waves rather than a stream of particles
• Huygens’s principle is a geometric model
that allows us to determine the position of a
wave front from a knowledge of an earlier
wave front
• All points on a given wave front are taken as
point sources for the production of spherical
secondary waves, called wavelets, that
propagate outward with speeds characteristic
of waves in that medium.
• After some time interval has elapsed, the new
position of the wave front is the surface
tangent to the wavelets.
• Consider a plane wave
moving through free
space (figure a)
• At t = 0, the wave front is
indicated by the plane
labeled AA’
• Each point on this wave
front is a point source for
a wavelet
• Showing three of these
points, we draw arcs of
circles, each of radius
ct
• where c is the speed of
light in free space and t
is the time interval
during which the wave
propagates
• The surface drawn
tangent to the wavelets
is the plane BB’, which
is parallel to AA’
• This plane is the wave
front at the end of the
time interval t
• Figure b shows
Huygens’s construction
for an outgoing
spherical wave
• Consider water waves
generated in a ripple tank
• Plane waves produced to
the left of the slits emerge
to the right of the slits as
two-dimensional circular
waves propagating
outward
• At a later time, the tangent
of the circular waves
remains a straight line
• We can derive the laws of
reflection using Huygens’s
principle
• The line AB represents a
plane wave front of the
incident light just as ray 1
strikes the surface
• At this instant, the wave at A
sends out a Huygens wavelet
(appearing at a later time as
the light brown circular arc
passing through D)
• the reflected light makes an
angle ’ with the surface
• At the same time, the wave at
B emits a Huygens wavelet
(the light brown circular arc
passing through C) with the
incident light making an angle
 with the surface
• The figure shows these
wavelets after a time interval
t, after which ray 2 strikes the
surface
• Because both rays 1 and 2
move with the same speed,
we must have
AD = BC = c  t
• Note that the two triangles ABC and ADC
are congruent
• We see that
and
where  = 90  1 and ’ = 90  ’1

• Because AD = BC,
• So:
• This is the law of reflection

• Deriving the law of
refraction:
• We focus our attention on
the instant ray 1 strikes the
surface and the subsequent
time interval until ray 2
strikes the surface
• During this time interval, the
wave at A sends out a
Huygens wavelet (the light
brown arc passing through D)
and the light refracts into the
material, making an angle 2
with the normal to the surface
• The radius of the wavelet
from A is AD = v2t, where
v2 is the wave speed in the
second medium
• The radius of the wavelet
from B is BC = v1t, where
v1 is the wave speed in the
original medium
• From triangles ABC and ADC, we find
• Dividing the first equation by the second gives:
• Substituting:
• This is Snell’s law of reflection

25.7 Total Internal Reflection
• A phenomenon called total internal
reflection can occur when light is directed
from a medium having a given index of
refraction toward one having a lower index of
refraction
• Possible directions of the
beam are indicated by rays
numbered 1 through 5
• The refracted rays are bent
away from the normal
since n1 > n2
• Critical
There Angle angle
is a particular
of incidence that will result
in an angle of refraction of
90°
• This angle of incidence is
called the critical angle, C
• For angles of incidence greater than the
critical angle, the beam is entirely reflected at
the boundary
• This ray obeys the law of reflection at the
boundary
• Total internal reflection occurs only when light
is directed from a medium of a given index of
refraction toward a medium of lower index of
refraction
• We can use Snell’s law to find the critical
angle
• When 1 = c, 2 = 90, and Snell’s law gives
• This equation can be used only when n1 is greater

than n2
• Total internal reflection occurs only when light
travels from a medium of high index of
refraction to a medium of lower index of
refraction
• That is why the word internal is in the name.
• The light must initially be inside a material of
higher index of refraction than the medium
outside the material
Example 25.4 A View from the Fish’s
Eye
Find the critical angle for an air–water boundary
(Assume the index of refraction of water is 1.33)
• Use the critical angle equation for the air-water
interface:
25.8 Context Connection: Optical
Fibers
• An interesting application of total internal
reflection is the use of glass or transparent
plastic rods to “pipe” light from one place to
another
• In the communication industry, digital pulses
of laser light move along these light pipes,
carrying information at an extremely high
rate
Fibers
• Light is confined to traveling
within a rod, even around
curves, as the result of
successive total internal
reflections
• Such a light pipe is flexible if
thin fibers are used rather
than thick rods
• A flexible light pipe is called
an optical fiber
Fibers
• An optical fiber consists of
a transparent core
surrounded by cladding
• The cladding has a lower n
than the core
• This allows the light in the
core to experience total
internal reflection
• The combination is
surrounded by the jacket
Fibers
• The figure shows a cross-
sectional view of a
multimode, stepped index
fiber
• Stepped index comes from
the discontinuity in n
between the core and the
cladding
• Multimode means that light
entering the fiber at many
angles is transmitted
Fibers
• This type of fiber works for
transmitting signals over a
short distance but not long
distances
• a digital pulse spreads with
distance
• Imagine that we input a
perfectly rectangular
pulse of laser light to the
core of the optical fiber
Fibers
• The laser light intensity:
• rises instantaneously to its highest value
• stays constant for the duration of the pulse
• then instantaneously drops to zero
Fibers
• The light entering along the
axis travels the shortest
distance and arrives at the
other end first
• The other light paths
represent longer distance of
travel because of the angled
bounces
Fibers
• Light from the pulse arrives at the other end
over a longer period and the pulse is spread
out
Fibers
• If a series of pulses represents zeroes and
ones for a binary signal, this spreading could
cause the pulses to overlap or might reduce
the peak intensity below the detection
threshold
• either situation would result in obliteration of the
information
Fibers
• One way to improve optical
transmission is to use a
multimode, graded index
fiber
• This fiber has a core whose
index of refraction is smaller
at larger radii from the center
• With a graded index core,
off-axis rays of light
experience continuous
refraction and curve
gradually away from the
edges and back toward the
center
Fibers
• Such curving reduces the transit time
through the fiber for off-axis rays and also
reduces the spreading out of the pulse
• The transit time is reduced for two reasons:
1. The path length is reduced
2. Much of the time the wave travels in the lower
index of refraction region, where the speed of light
is higher than at the center
Fibers
• The spreading effect can be
further reduced by designing
the fiber with two changes
from the multimode, stepped
index fiber
• The core is made very small
so that all paths within it are
more nearly the same length,
and the difference in index of
refraction between core and
cladding is made relatively
small so that off-axis rays
enter the cladding and are
absorbed
• This is a single-mode,
stepped index fiber

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Raymond A.

• This relationship is called the law of reflection

• From the triangle made by the first reflected ray

• From the law of reflection, find the angle the

• v1 is the speed of the light in the first medium

•  is the wavelength of light in vacuum

• θ1 is the angle of incidence

• Substitute indices of refraction and the incident

• Substitute numerical values:

• Apply Snell’s law to the lower surface:

• Substitute Equation (1) into Equation (2):

where  = 90  1 and ’ = 90  ’1

• This is the law of reflection

• Dividing the first equation by the second gives:

• This is Snell’s law of reflection

• This equation can be used only when n1 is greater

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