RESONANCES IN A DISPERSIVE MEDIUM

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References: Griffiths, David J. (2007), Introduction to Electrodynamics,
3rd Edition; Pearson Education - Problem 9.24.
Post date: 21 Sep 2014.
In a dispersive medium, the index of refraction is
 
2
fj ωj − ω 2
N q2
n ≈ 1+ ∑ 2 (1)
20 m j

ωj2 − ω 2 + (ωγj )2

and the absorption coefficient is

N q2ω2 fj γj
α ≈ ∑ 2 (2)
c0 m j

2
ωj − ω 2 + (ωγj )2
We can look at the behaviour of these coefficients near one of the reso-
nances, that is, when ω ≈ ωj for some j. To simplify things, we’ll assume
that there is only one term in the sum (that is, only one resonance). In
practice, when we’re near one resonance, the other resonances don’t affect
things much unless they are very close together.
In this case, we’ll take the one natural frequency to be ω0 and the associ-
ated damping coefficient to be γ0 , and define
ω
x≡ (3)
ω0
Then we get, after dividing top and bottom by ω02 :

N q 2 f0 1 − x2
n ≈ 1+ (4)
20 m ω 2 (1 − x2 )2 + γ 2 x2
0 0
N q2f 0 γ0 x2
α ≈ (5)
m0 c ω 2 (1 − x2 )2 + γ 2 x2
0 0
The index of refraction n rises to a peak when ω is just before ω0 , then
dips sharply, reaching a minimum just after ω0 , after which it rises slowly
1
 RESONANCES IN A DISPERSIVE MEDIUM 2

again. We can find the maximum and minimum by setting the derivative to
zero and solving for x. Using Maple to simplify the result, we get
 2
x x 4 − 2x2 + 1 − γ0
dn N q f0 2
ω02
=   2   =0 (6)
dx 0 m ω 2 x4 γ0 − 2 x2 + 1
0
0ω2
The roots are
r r
γ0 γ0
x = 0, ± 1 + , ± 1 − (7)
ω0 ω0
The negative and zero we see that n reaches
q roots aren’t of interest, so q
its maximum at x = 1 − ω0 and minimum at x = 1 + ωγ00 . If γ0  ω0 ,
γ0

these approximate to

1
ωn max ≈ ω0 − γ0 (8)
2
1
ωn min ≈ ω0 + γ0 (9)
2

so the width of the anomalous region is γ0 .

From 5, we see that the absorption reaches a maximum when x = 1 (this
can be checked by calculating the derivative) and has a value of

N q 2 f0
αmax = (10)
m0 cγ0
Substituting the positive roots from 7 into 5 and dividing by αmax we
find

αn max ω0 − γ0 1
= ≈ (11)
αmax 2ω0 − γ0 2
αn min ω0 + γ0 1
= ≈ (12)
αmax 2ω0 + γ0 2
Thus for small γ, the index of refraction reaches its maximum and mini-
mum values roughly where the absorption is half its maximum.
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