Absorption

• A medium with absorption can be characterized by a complex

susceptibility

• Which implies a complex permittivity

• For a monochromatic wave we have

which we write as

• Considering a wave

the intensity is
Absorption (or attenuation)
coefficient
P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008
 Weakly absorbing medium
• taking refractive index to be related to β via

we have

• Case of weakly absorbing media

expand /

• So that /

• And finally

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Strongly absorbing medium
• Case when

• So

• Remembering that

• We get

• Only “+” solution is selected to insure α>0

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Resonant medium: Lorentz model
• Consider the differential equation

• Take and then

• Take we get

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Resonant medium II
• Real and imaginary part of the susceptibility

• Limiting cases

For

#0
"0
$

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

!
 Resonant medium III

χ’ -χ’’

Δω
Δω χ0 Q

χ0

Q=ω0/Δω

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Resonant medium IV
• Around the resonance

=Δω

• For media with multiple resonance the index of refraction is written

(Sellmeier equation)

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Dispersion
• Dispersion arises from

• Example Snell-Descartes’ law

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Phase and Group Velocity
• Group velocity is the velocity of the “envelope” A(t) of a signal. Take
the Fourier transform

• Expand the wavevector

• Gives

• So

the envelope propagates at velocity v

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Group Velocity Dispersion (GVD)
• GVD is defined as

• Introducing the group index

• The GVD takes the form

• Or alternatively

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Higher Order Dispersion
• Generally can Taylor-expand the wave vector as

• Group velocity

• Group velocity (or delay) dispersion (GVD or GDD)

Very important
to generate very
• Third order dispersion (TOD)
short (<100 fs)
optical pulses

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Dispersion effects

• Two cases
– Dω>0: normal dispersion
– Dω<0: anomalous dispersion

• Dispersion can be use to “chirp” a laser pulse i.e. induce a

correlation between time and frequency

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Dispersion application: chirp pulse amplification

• Produce a pulse
• Propagate it in, e.g., a normal dispersion
medium
• Amplify it
• Compress it using, e.g., an anomalous
dispersion medium

amplifier

Chirp mirror

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Meta-material: an old idea

• Topic of Friday Colloquium on Nov 11, 2008 (talk by S. Antipov from

ANL)

• “Doubly-negative medium”: both the electric permittivity and the

magnetic permeability are negative

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Meta-material: basics & applications

• In standard materials

• In left-hander materials

• Poynting vector has opposite

direction compared to k vector
consequence: n <0 (HW3)

• A simple parallel plate can be

used to focus the beam

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Meta-material: experimental verification I

• Experimental evidence in the microwave regime (~10 GHz)

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

Meta-material: experimental verification I cnt’d

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008

 Meta-material: experimental verification II

• Experimental evidence
in the optical regime
reported last year…

P. Piot, PHYS 630 – Fall 2008