Huygens'Principle Reveals Dispersion in Inhomogeneous Media

TL;DR

This paper uses Huygens' principle to analyze how inhomogeneities in optical media cause dispersion, demonstrating that the dispersion law aligns with the Cauchy formula and highlighting the principle's applicability to light-particle interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of Huygens' principle to model dispersion in inhomogeneous optical media, including microsphere media, and confirms the dispersion law's consistency with the Cauchy formula.

Findings

Dispersion in inhomogeneous media follows the Cauchy formula.

Huygens' principle effectively models light interaction with inhomogeneous zones.

The approach applies to both single and multiple inhomogeneous zones.

Abstract

Dispersion is an important factor of optical materials. Due to the effect of techniques and equipment in the manufacturing process of optical materials, the inhomogeneity of the material may be caused. In this paper, microsphere optical media are used to replace the inhomogeneous zones, and Huygens'principle is used to study the dispersion caused by the material inhomogeneity. First, we study the effect of a single inhomogeneous zone, and then the effect of a thin medium with a large number of inhomogeneous zones. It is deduced that the dispersion law of a macro-optical medium is also consistent with Cauchy formula. Finally, it is pointed out that Huygens'principle is suitable for studying the interaction between light and particles.