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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

They Did It Together

When we superimpose both the effects of change in speed along the direction of incidence, that gives us Snell's Law and boundary conditions applied to the B field at the medium interface, we have,

αα2

For the case of μ2>μ1,

α2s<α2+Δθ

and

α2p>α2Δθ

For the case of μ2<μ1,

α2s>α2+Δθ

and

α2p<α2Δθ


When Δθ=0, the equations collapse to

α2s=α2p=α2

as we observe by Snell's Law for refraction alone.  (We take the intersection of the two regions defining α2s and α2p after admitting the case of μ1=μ2. )

It might appear that the split is due to the change in polarization θ alone.  In fact, both polarization, θ and boundary conditions for the B field at the interface, contribute to refraction.

Note: μn