REFRACTION AND DISPERSION COEFFICIENTS

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References: Griffiths, David J. (2007), Introduction to Electrodynamics,
3rd Edition; Pearson Education - Problem 9.23b.
Post date: 20 Sep 2014.
In a dispersive medium, the permittivity depends on the frequency of
electromagnetic radiation.

N q2 fj
˜ = 0 + ∑ 2
(1)
m j ωj − ω 2 − iωγj

where there are fj electrons per atom with natural frequency ωj and damp-
ing factor γj , and there are N atoms per unit volume. Because ˜ is complex,
the medium isn’t linear in the sense that the polarization is directly propor-
tional to the applied field, but if we take both the polarization P̃ and field Ẽ
to be complex, then the medium is linear in the sense that

P̃ = 0 χ̃e Ẽ (2)
With this assumption, we can substitute the complex permittivity ˜ for
the ordinary real permittivity  in Maxwell’s equations and follow through
the same steps to get the wave equation, which now becomes

∂ 2 Ẽ
∇2 Ẽ = µ˜ (3)
∂t2
Just as before, we can get plane wave solutions of the form

Ẽ (z, t) = Ẽ0 ei(k̃z−ωt) (4)

where k̃ is a complex wave vector

p
k̃ = ˜µω (5)
The actual real and imaginary parts of k̃ are complicated expressions
since ˜ is a sum of complex numbers, but we can use the shortcut notation

k̃ = k + iκ (6)
1
 REFRACTION AND DISPERSION COEFFICIENTS 2

giving (assuming E is polarized in the x direction):

Ẽ (z, t) = Ẽ0 e−κz ei(kz−ωt) x̂ (7)

 2
The intensity of the radiation is proportional to Ẽ so the intensity falls
off according to e−2κz as we penetrate the medium. The absorption coeffi-
cient is defined as

α ≡ 2κ (8)

and gives a measure of the reciprocal of the distance at which the intensity
is attenuated.
We can write the complex permittivity in 1 as
" #
N q2 fj ωj2 − ω 2 + iωγj
˜ = 0 + ∑ ω2 − ω2 − iωγj (9)
m j j ωj2 − ω 2 + iωγj
 
N q2 fj ωj2 − ω 2 N q2 fj ωγj
= 0 + ∑ 2 + i ∑ 2
m j m j
 
ωj2 − ω 2 + (ωγj )2 ωj2 − ω 2 + (ωγj )2
(10)
If we stay away from the resonant frequencies, where ω ≈ ωj , the sum
terms are quite small so we can approximate them in 5 by the first order term
in a Taylor expansion. If we also take µ ≈ µ0 as is true of most materials,
√
and use c = 1/ µ0 0 , we get
r
˜
k̃ = ω (11)
0 c2
√
Using 1 + x ≈ 1 + 12 x for small x, we get
     
2
fj ωj − ω 2
ω N q2  ω  N q2 fj ωγj
k̃ ≈ 1 +  +i 

c ∑
20 m j

2
2
2
∑
c 20 m j

2
2
2

ωj − ω 2 + (ωγj ) ωj − ω 2 + (ωγj )
(12)
From 7 the speed of the wave is
ω
v= (13)
k
 REFRACTION AND DISPERSION COEFFICIENTS 3

so the index of refraction is

c
n = (14)
v  
N q2 fj ωj2 − ω 2
≈ 1+ (15)
20 m ∑
 2
j ωj2 − ω 2 + (ωγj )2

and the absorption coefficient is

α = 2κ (16)
N q2ω2 fj γj
≈ ∑ 2 (17)
c0 m j

ωj2 − ω 2 + (ωγj )2

If we stay away from resonances, the damping term becomes insignifi-

cant so the index of refraction is approximately

N q2 fj
n ≈ 1+ ∑ 2
(18)
20 m j ωj − ω 2
If the frequency ω of the wave is significantly less than all the resonant
1
frequencies ωj we can further approximate this using 1−x ≈ 1 + x for small
x:

N q2 fj
n ≈ 1+ ∑   (19)
20 m j ω 2 1 − ω 2 /ω 2
j j

N q2 fj N q2 fj
≈ 1+ + ω2 (20)
20 m ∑ ω 2
j j 20 m ∑ ω 4 j j

In a vacuum, c = λν = λω/2π so

N q2 fj 4π 2 c2 N q 2 fj
n ≈ 1+ ∑ 2
+ 2 ∑ (21)
20 m j ωj λ 20 m j ωj4
 
B
= 1+A 1+ 2 (22)
λ

where
 REFRACTION AND DISPERSION COEFFICIENTS 4

N q2 fj
A = ∑ (23)
20 m j ωj2
4π 2 c2 N q 2 fj
B = ∑ (24)
A 20 m j ωj4
Eqn 22 is known as the Cauchy formula, although Cauchy had many
equations named after him (particularly in the area of complex variable the-
ory), so the name is easily confused with other formulas. The parameter A is
the coefficient of refraction and B is the coefficient of dispersion. The more
usual form of Cauchy’s equation seems to be n = 1 + A + λB2 (I couldn’t
find any sources that gave the formula in the form used by Griffiths).
Example. Applying this model to hydrogen at 0 C and atmospheric pres-
sure (that is, standard temperature and pressure, or STP), the number of
electrons per molecule of H2 is fj = 2. In the previous post, we found
that the resonant frequency is ω0 = 4.13 × 1016 s−1 . At STP, an ideal gas
occupies 22.414 m3 kmol−1 , so the number density is

6.02 × 1023 (1000)

N= = 2.69 × 1025 (25)
22.414
The parameters are

N q2 2
A= = 5 × 10−5 (26)
20 m ω02
4π 2 c2 N q 2 2 4π 2 c2
B= = = 2.08 × 10−15 m2 (27)
A 20 m ω04 ω02
The experimental values quoted by Griffiths are

A = 1.36 × 10−4 (28)

B = 7.7 × 10−15 (29)

so the values from the model are at least around the right order of magni-
tude.
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