Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface to corrected reprint of the seventh edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the third edition
- Preface to the fourth edition
- Preface to the fifth edition
- Preface to the sixth edition
- Preface to the seventh edition
- Contents
- Historical introduction
- I Basic properties of the electromagnetic field
- II Electromagnetic potentials and polarization
- III Foundations of geometrical optics
- IV Geometrical theory of optical imaging
- V Geometrical theory of aberrations
- VI Image-forming instruments
- VII Elements of the theory of interference and interferometers
- VIII Elements of the theory of diffraction
- IX The diffraction theory of aberrations
- X Interference and diffraction with partially coherent light
- XI Rigorous diffraction theory
- XII Diffraction of light by ultrasonic waves
- XIII Scattering from inhomogeneous media
- XIV Optics of metals
- XV Optics of crystals
- Appendices
- Author index
- Subject index
II - Electromagnetic potentials and polarization
- Frontmatter
- Preface to corrected reprint of the seventh edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the third edition
- Preface to the fourth edition
- Preface to the fifth edition
- Preface to the sixth edition
- Preface to the seventh edition
- Contents
- Historical introduction
- I Basic properties of the electromagnetic field
- II Electromagnetic potentials and polarization
- III Foundations of geometrical optics
- IV Geometrical theory of optical imaging
- V Geometrical theory of aberrations
- VI Image-forming instruments
- VII Elements of the theory of interference and interferometers
- VIII Elements of the theory of diffraction
- IX The diffraction theory of aberrations
- X Interference and diffraction with partially coherent light
- XI Rigorous diffraction theory
- XII Diffraction of light by ultrasonic waves
- XIII Scattering from inhomogeneous media
- XIV Optics of metals
- XV Optics of crystals
- Appendices
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
IN the preceding chapter the effect of matter on an electromagnetic field was expressed in terms of a number of macroscopic constants. These have only a limited range of validity and are in fact inadequate to describe certain processes, such as the emission, absorption and dispersion of light. A full account of these phenomena would involve an extensive study of the atomistic theory and lies therefore outside the scope of this book.
It is possible, however, to describe the interaction of field and matter by means of a simple model which is entirely adequate for most branches of optics. For this purpose each of the vectors D and B is expressed as the sum of two terms. Of these one is taken to be the vacuum field and the other is regarded as arising from the influence of matter. Thus one is led to the introduction of two new vectors for describing the effects of matter: the electric polarization (P) and the magnetic polarization or magnetization (M). Instead of the material equations (10) and (11) in §1.1 connecting D and B with E and H, we now have equations connecting P and M with E and H. These new equations have a more direct physical meaning and lead to the following conception of the propagation of an electromagnetic field in matter:
An electromagnetic field produces at a given volume element certain amounts of polarization P and M which, in the first approximation, are proportional to the field, the constant of proportionality being a measure of the reaction of the field.
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- Information
- Principles of OpticsElectromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light, pp. 75 - 115Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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