MCT322: NANOTECHNOLOGY

LECTURE 6: OPTICAL PROPERTIES

Mohamed A. Elsheikh
Associate Professor
Electronics and Communications Department
Ain Shames University

mohamed.elsheikh@eng.asu.edu.eg
Outline

 Definitions and basic Concepts

 Solar Cell

 Metal Semiconductor junction

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Definitions and Basic Concepts – Electromagnetic Waves

 Optical properties refer to a material’s response to exposure to

electromagnetic radiation and, in particular, to visible light.
 Electromagnetic radiation have a wide extended range. Each range
may have different properties and interaction with Materials

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Definitions and Basic Concepts – Another view for light waves

 From a quantum-mechanical perspective, radiation is composed of

groups or packets of energy, which are called photons.
 Knowing that speed of waves are equal to:

 The photons will have an energy equal to:

Where h is Plank’s constant

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Light Interaction with Solids

 When light proceeds from one medium into another (e.g.,

from air into a solid substance), several things happen.
 Light radiation may experience :
– Transmission through the medium,
– Absorption by the medium .
– Reflection at the interface
 Therefore:

where T, A, and R represent, respectively, the Transmissivity

(IT/I0), absorptivity (IA/I0), and reflectivity (IR/I0)

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Classification of Material according to their light interaction

 Transparent materials: are materials that are capable of

transmitting light with relatively little absorption and reflection.

 Translucent materials: are those through which light is transmitted

diffusely; that is, light is scattered within the interior, to the degree
that objects are not clearly distinguishable when viewed through a
specimen of the material.

 Opaque Materials: are those which are impervious to the

transmission of visible light are termed opaque.

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Atomic and Electronic Interactions (1)

Electronic Polarization:
o Part of the electromagnetic waves are varying electric field.
o This filed can affect the electronic clouds of the material atoms
as the wave pass through it.

o As a consequence:
• Some of the radiation energy may be absorbed
• Light waves will be retarded in velocity as they pass through the medium.
The second consequence is manifested as refraction.

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Atomic and Electronic Interactions (2)

Electron Transition:
o The absorption and emission of electromagnetic radiation may involve
electron transitions.
o This absorption will need to follow some rules:
• Only specific ΔEs exist between the energy
levels.

• Stimulated electron cannot remain in an

excited state indefinitely; (after a short time,
it falls or decays back into its ground state, or
unexcited level, with a reemission of
electromagnetic radiation).

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

How Metal behave with Light ?

 Total absorption occurs within a very thin layer , less than 0.1um thickness.
 All frequencies of visible light are absorbed by metals.
 Metals are transparent to high frequency (x- and -ray) radiation.
 Most of the absorbed radiation is reemitted from the surface in the form of
visible light of the same wavelength.
 The reflectivity for most metals is between 0.90 and 0.95

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

What about the rest of materials (non-metallic materials)?

 Due to their energy band structures, non-metallic materials can be

transparent to light.

 As a result, other phenomena like refraction and transmission need to be

considered.

 When the Light that is transmitted into the interior of transparent

materials experiences a decrease in velocity, and, as a result, is bent at
the interface; this phenomenon is termed Refraction.

 We can define index of refraction as

Since , we can rewrite it as

Most substances are only slightly magnetic, 

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

What about the rest of materials (non-metallic materials)?

 the size of the constituent atoms or ions has a considerable

influence on the magnitude of refractive index.
 The larger an atom or ion, the greater the electronic polarization,
the slower the velocity, and the greater the index of refraction.
 Example:
– Refractive Index of Soda-lime is 1.5.
– Adding large Barium and lead ions (as BaO and PbO), leads to increase to
upto 2.1.

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Reflection
 The reflectivity R represents the fraction of the incident light that is
reflected at the interface:

 If the light is normal (or perpendicular) to the interface:

 If coming from a vacuum or air into a solid s :

 The higher the index of refraction of the solid, the greater the reflectivity.
For typical silicate glasses, the reflectivity is approximately 0.05.

 Reflection losses for lenses and other optical instruments are minimized
significantly by coating the reflecting surface with very thin layers of
dielectric materials such as magnesium fluoride (MgF2).
Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology
Light Absorption

 Light radiation is absorbed in nonmetallic materials by two basic

mechanisms:
– Electronic polarization: for light frequencies in the vicinity of the relaxation
frequency of the constituent atoms.
– Valence band–conduction band electron transitions : which depend on the
electron energy band structure of the material.
• In order to have such transition, we need:

OR

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Light Absorption (2)

 For visible light interaction , we need to have  to range between

0.4m and 0.7m  leading to limit the visible light interaction to
materials with Eg to vary between 1.8eV and 3.1eV.
 If impurities exists, two possible mechanisms can occur:

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Light Transmission

 The phenomena of absorption, reflection, and transmission may be

applied to the passage of light through a transparent solid:

 Where: R is the reflectivity, and  is absorption coefficient.

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

Colorization of a material

 Transparent materials appear colored as a consequence of specific

wavelength ranges of light that are selectively absorbed.
 If the different parameters affecting the transmitted light varies
within visible wavelength,

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology

References

 “Materials science and engineering, An Introduction ”, 8th Edition,

Callister. (CH 21)

Lecture 06 MCT322 Nanotechnology