Elsbeth Nicole P.

Villanueva Che 60 A

Optical Properties II
Objectives:
1. To define what is luminescence
2. To know the three types of luminescence
3. To discuss what is photoconductivity, laser, and optic fibers

APPLICATIONS OF OPTICAL PHENOMENA

 Light interacts with a material in many ways.
1. Luminescence
2. Lasers
3. Photo-conductivity
4. Optical fibers

LUMINESCENCE
• Materials are capable of absorbing energy and then reemitting visible light in a
phenomenon
• The word luminescence is derived from the Latin word for light, lumen, and the
Latin, escentia, meaning ‘the process of’ and hence is the process of giving off
light.
Three types of luminescence:
1. Fluorescence (photo-luminescence) - when light is reemitted in less than a
second after excitation
2. Phosphorescence (cathode- luminescence) - for longer reemission times
3. Electro-luminescence - is the phenomenon whereby light is emitted as a
result of electron–hole recombination events that are induced in a forward-
biased diode.
PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY
 is the phenomenon whereby the semiconductors are bombarded by photons and
results in the creation of electron-hole pairs that can be used to generate current.
 It is different from photo-electric effect in the sense that an electron-hole pair is
generated whose energy is related to the band gap energy instead of free electron
alone whose energy is related to the Fermi level.
 The current produced in photo-conductivity is directly related to the incident light
intensity.
LASER
 LASER stands for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation
 All the radiative electron transitions are spontaneous; that an electron falls from a
high energy state to a lower one without any external provocation. These transition
 events occur independently of one another and at random times, producing
radiation that is incoherent.
 With lasers, however, coherent light is generated by electron transitions initiated
by an external stimulus
 One requirement of these semiconducting materials is that the wavelength
associated with the band gap energy Eg must correspond to visible light;

wavelength must lie between 0.4 and 0.7 micrometer.

OPTICAL FIBERS
 Use of fiber-optic technology in our modern telecommunications provides for the
transmission of information that is interference free, rapid, and intense.
 Encoder; the information in electronic form must first be digitized into bits, that is,
1s and 0s.
 Electrical-to-optical converter; convert this electrical signal into an optical
(photonic) one. This converter is normally a semiconductor laser, which emits
monochromatic and coherent light.
 Fiber-optic cable; these photonic pulse signals are then fed into and carried
through it to the receiving end.
 Repeater; for long transmissions, they may be required; these are devices that
amplify and regenerate the signal.
 Decoder; at the receiving end the photonic signal is reconverted to an electronic
one.
REFERENCES:
• https://www.edinst.com/blog/photoluminescence-differences/
• https://www.explainthatstuff.com/luminescence.html
• https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/secret-history-bioluminescence/
• https://www.academia.edu/36993579/Fundamentals_of_Materials_Science_and_Engineering_
5th_Edition.pdf
• https://www.google.com/search?q=photoconductivity&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ah
UKEwiQqoO2kNzkAhVTM94KHZyeC4sQ_AUIEigB&biw=1094&bih=458#imgrc=DJ8NHtXWR4aS0
M:
• https://www.slideshare.net/XAADARIF/properties-of-optical-materials