Optical Properties of Solids

Second Edition

Mark Fox
Oxford University Press, 2010
SOLUTIONS TO EXERCISES
These notes contain detailed solutions to the Exercises at the end of each
chapter of the book, for the benefit of class instructors. Please note that figures
within the solutions are numbered consecutively from the start of the document
(e.g. Fig. 1) in order to distinguish them from the figures in the book, which
have an additional chapter label (e.g. Fig. 1.1). A similar convention applies to
the labels of tables.
The author would be very grateful if mistakes that are discovered in the solutions would be communicated to him. He is also very appreciative of comments
about the text and/or the Exercises. He may be contacted at the following
address:
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Sheffield
Hicks Building
Sheffield, S3 7RH
United Kingdom.
email: mark.fox@shef.ac.uk
c Mark Fox 2010

Chapter 1
Introduction
(1.1) Glass is transparent in the visible spectral region and hence we can assume
= = 0. The reflectivity is calculated by inserting n = 1.51 and = 0
into eqn 1.29 to obtain R = 0.041. The transmission is calculated from
eqn 1.9 with R = 0.041 to obtain T = 92%.
(1.2) From Table 1.4 we read that the refractive indices of fused silica and
dense flint glass are 1.46 and 1.746 respectively. The reflectivities are then
calculated from eqn 1.29 to be 0.035 and 0.074 respectively, with = 0
in both cases because the glass is transparent. We thus find that the
reflectivity of dense flint glass is larger than that of fused silica by a factor
of 2.1. This is why cutglass products made from dense flint glass have a
sparkling appearance.
(1.3) We first use eqns 1.25 and 1.26 to convert r to n
, giving n = 3.01 and
= 0.38. We then proceed as in Example 1.2. This gives:
v = c/n = 9.97 107 m s1 ,
= 4/ = 9.6 106 m1 ,
R = [(n 1)2 + 2 ]/[(n + 1)2 + 2 ] = 25.6%.
(1.4) The antireflection coating prevents losses at the airsemiconductor interface, and 90% of the light is absorbed when exp(l) = 0.1 at the
operating wavelength. With = 1.3 105 m1 at 850 nm, we then find
l = 1.8 105 m = 18 m.
(1.5) We are given n = 3.68 and we can use eqn 1.19 to work out = /4 =
0.083. We then use eqn 1.29 to find R = 0.328. Since l = 2.6, we do not
need to consider multiple reflections and we can just use eqn 1.8 to find
the transmission. This gives: T = (1 0.328)2 exp(1.3 2) = 0.034.
The optical density is calculated from eqn 1.11 as 0.434 1.3 2 = 1.1.
(1.6) 99.8% absorption in 10 m means exp(l) = 0.002, and hence = 0.62 m1 .
We use eqn 1.19 to find = /4 = 3.5 108 . We thus have n
=
1.33 + i 3.5 108 . The real and imaginary parts of r are found from
eqns 1.23 and 1.24 respectively, and we thus obtain r = 1.77+i 9.2108 .
(1.7) The filter appears yellow and so it must transmit red and green light, but
not blue. The filter must therefore have absorption at blue wavelengths.
(1.8) (a) In the incoherent limit, we just add the intensities of the beams. The
intensities of the beams transmitted after multiple reflections are shown

incident light R1
I0

R2
e-al

I0(1-R1)

I0(1-R1)e-a l

I0R1

I0(1-R1)R2e

I0(1-R1)R2e-a l
I0(1-R1) R2R1e-3a l

I0(1-R1)2R2e-2a l

I0(1-R1)2 R22R1 e-4a l

transmitted light

-2a l

I0(1-R1) R2R1e-2a l
I0(1-R1) R22R1e-4a l

I0(1-R1) (1-R2) e-a l

I0(1-R1) R22R1e-3a l
I0(1-R1) R22R12e-5a l

I0(1-R1) R22R12e-4a l

I0(1-R1) (1-R2) R2R1 e-3a l

I0(1-R1) R23R12e-5a l

reflected light

I0(1-R1) (1-R2) R22R12 e-5a l

Figure 1: Multiple reflections in the incoherent limit, as considered in Exercise
1.8.
in Fig. 1. The transmitted intensity is given by:
It

= I0 (1 R1 )(1 R2 )el + I0 (1 R1 )(1 R2 )R1 R2 e3l

+ I0 (1 R1 )(1 R2 )R12 R22 e5l +

= I0 (1 R1 )(1 R2 )el 1 + R1 R2 e2l + (R1 R2 )2 e4l + ,

X
= I0 (1 R1 )(1 R2 )el
(R1 R2 e2l )k ,
k=0

= I0 (1 R1 )(1 R2 )e
where we used the identity
transmissivity is thus:
T =

1
,
1 R1 R2 e2l

P
k=0

xk = 1/(1 x) in the last line. The

It
(1 R1 )(1 R2 )el
=
.
I0
1 R1 R2 e2l

(b) We have an air-medium-air situation, and so it will be the case that

R1 = R2 R. We need to compare the exact formulae given in eqns 1.6
and 1.9 with the approximate one that neglects multiple reflections given
in eqn 1.8.
(i) With = 0 the extinction coefficient will also be zero. We then
calculate the reflectivity from eqn 1.29 to be:
R=

2.42
(3.4 1)2
=
= 0.30 .
(3.4 + 1)2
4.42
2