Different Optical Parameters Analysis - Research Paper Example

? Optical Parameter Optical parameter involves reflection, refraction, and absorption. In all these cases, light is propagated as rays. A ray, in this case, is defined as an instrument used to model the propagation of light. The rays of light are normally propagated in a path that is considered rectilinear whenever they travel in any medium (Erik, 2004). At the interface of two media that are not similar, a ray would bend, curve if in media that changes its refractive index, reflected or absorbed. Optical parameters determined the propagation of the rays in an optical system depending on the wavelength of the ray. This vital optics simplification does not account for the effects of optics like interference and diffraction. This paper seeks to explore the characteristics of different optical parameters. The first optical parameter is known as reflection. Different surfaces like those of mirrors reflect light in a predictable, easy way. This gives room for the production of images that are reflected which can be linked to real or virtual space location (Erik, 2004). In surfaces of this kind, the direction of the ray that is reflected is dependent to the ray that is incident to the normal surface and a line perpendicular towards the surface at exactly the same position that is hit by the ray (Francos, 2002). The reflected, and the incident ray lie in a same plane, and the angle of incidence is the same as the angle of reflection. This is referred as the reflection laws. Diagram 1 represents the incident and the reflected ray. Diagram 1. In a mirror that is flat, the reflection law means that the object’s images are upright and at an equal distance behind the given mirror (Francos, 2002). The size of the image is equal to that of an object. Apart from this, the images of mirrors would be laterally inverted. The mirrors having surfaces that are curved could be modeled through tracing of the ray and the use of the reflection law at all the points on the surface. Different surfaces that are curved could focus the light having aberrations because of the shape that is diverging leading to a smeared focus in the space (Hanrahan and Krueger, 2008). For instance, mirrors that are spherical will display spherical aberrations. Mirrors that are curved produce images having a magnification either less than or greater than one. These images could be either inverted or upright. An image that is upright is considered to be virtual, and images that are inverted are real and projected on the screen. Refraction, on the other hand, happens whenever light moves through a special region with refraction index that is changing. One easy situation of refraction happens whenever a uniform medium with refractive index ?1 interface with another medium with a different refraction index ?2 (Duarte, 2009). In this respect, the deflection of the light ray is described by Snell’s law which is given by; ?1sin ?1=?2 sin ?2, where ?1 and ?2 are angles formed between the reflected and the incident ray and the normal. From the given definition of the refractive index, the speed of light would also be changing from one medium to another (Francos, 2002). This implies that v1 sin ?2= v2sin?1, where v1 and v2 are the velocities of the waves the different media. In this regard, as the rays of light travel from a material with a high refractive index to that having a low refractive index, the interface interaction could lead to a zero transmission. This is referred to as the internal reflection. Snell’s law could also be used in the prediction of the rays of light passing through media that is linear whenever there exist a refraction index and the media geometry. Absorption is a manner in which photon energy is obtained by matter. During the propagation of a wave, absorption is referred to as attenuation (Francos, 2003). The waves of absorption do not rely on the linear absorption. In some cases, the medium may change its dependently transparency in respect to the wave intensity and saturated absorption (Duarte, 2009). The absorption factor is the fraction of the solar irradiance, which is absorbed (Francos, 2003). As a Wavelength factor, the absorption factor can be referred to as the spectral factor of absorption (A?). Weighing A? on the spectrum of the sun G?, the factor of absorption would be given by; A = Optical parameters ( Read More