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Optical Properties

This document discusses optical properties of materials including light interactions with solids like reflection, absorption, transmission, and scattering. It covers topics such as optical classifications of materials, light absorption in metals and nonmetals using Beer's law, refraction and reflection at material interfaces, luminescence, and applications to solar photovoltaic cells. Key points covered include how incident light can be reflected, absorbed, transmitted or scattered when interacting with materials, and how properties like absorption coefficient and index of refraction relate to a material's optical behavior.

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Sangetha Chelladorai
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62 views

Optical Properties

This document discusses optical properties of materials including light interactions with solids like reflection, absorption, transmission, and scattering. It covers topics such as optical classifications of materials, light absorption in metals and nonmetals using Beer's law, refraction and reflection at material interfaces, luminescence, and applications to solar photovoltaic cells. Key points covered include how incident light can be reflected, absorbed, transmitted or scattered when interacting with materials, and how properties like absorption coefficient and index of refraction relate to a material's optical behavior.

Uploaded by

Sangetha Chelladorai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Materials Sciences

Optical Properties

Prof. Mikio Miyake


Relation between various source
wave length and energy
Solar energy distribution
Optical Properties
Light has both particulate and wavelike characteristics
• Photon - a quantum unit of light

4
Light Interactions with Solids
• Incident light is reflected, absorbed, scattered, and/or
transmitted: I0 = IT + IA + IR + IS

Reflected: IR Absorbed: IA
Transmitted: IT
Incident: I0
Scattered: IS
• Optical classification of materials:
Transparent Translucent Opaque

single polycrystalline polycrystalline


crystal dense porous
Optical Properties of Metals: Absorption
• Absorption of photons by electron transitions:
Energy of electron

unfilled states

DE = hν

filled states
Planck’s constant freq.
of
(6.63 x 10-34 J/s) incident
light
• Unfilled electron states are adjacent to filled states
• Near-surface electrons absorb visible light.
Light Absorption
Beer’s Law: amount of light absorbed by a material

β = absorption coefficient, cm-1


 = sample thickness, cm
I 0 = incident light intensity
IT = transmitted light intensity

Rearranging and taking the natural log of both sides of


the equation leads to
Refraction
• Transmitted light distorts electron clouds.
electron
no cloud
transmitted + transmitted +
light distorts
light
• The velocity of light in a material is lower than in a vacuum.

n = index of refraction

-- Adding large ions (e.g., lead) to glass


decreases the speed of light in the glass. Material n
-- Light can be “bent” as it passes through Typical glasses ca. 1.5 -1.7
a transparent prism Plastics 1.3 -1.6
PbO (Litharge) 2.67
Diamond 2.41
Refraction and Reflectance
n2 < n1

n2 ϕ1 = incident angle
n1 ϕ2 = refracted angle
ϕc = critical angle

ϕc exists when ϕ2 = 90°


For ϕ1 > ϕc light is internally reflected

• Fiber optic cables are clad in low n material so that light will
experience total internal reflectance and not escape from the
optical fiber.
Example: Diamond in air
• What is the critical angle ϕc for light passing from diamond (n1 =
2.41) into air (n2 = 1)?
Reflection of Light for Metals
• Electron transition from an excited state produces a photon.
Energy of electron

IR unfilled states
“conducting” electron
Electron transition
photon emitted
from metal surface

filled states
Reflection of Light for Metals (cont.)

• Reflectivity (IR /I0) is between 0.90 and 0.95.


• Metal surfaces appear shiny
• Most of absorbed light is reflected at the same wavelength
• Small fraction of light may be absorbed
• Color of reflected light depends on wavelength distribution
• Example: The metals copper and gold absorb light in blue and green =>
reflected light has gold color
Reflectivity of Nonmetals
• For normal incidence and light passing into a solid having
an index of refraction n:

• Example: Diamond n = 2.41

\ 17% of light is reflected


Selected Light Absorption in Semiconductors
Absorption of light of frequency ν by electron transition occurs
if hν > Egap Energy of electron

Examples of photon energies:


unfilled states
blue light: hν = 3.1 eV
red light: hν = 1.8 eV

Egap
incident photon
energy hν
filled states

• If Egap < 1.8 eV, all light absorbed; material is opaque (e.g., Si, GaAs)
• If Egap > 3.1 eV, no light absorption; material is transparent and
colorless (e.g., diamond)
• If 1.8 eV < Egap < 3.1 eV, partial light absorption; material is colored
Computations of Minimum Wavelength Absorbed
(a) What is the minimum wavelength absorbed by Ge, for which Eg = 0.67 eV?

(b) Redoing this computation for Si which has a band gap of 1.1 eV

Note: the presence of donor and/or acceptor states allows for


light absorption at other wavelengths.
Relation between color and wave length（nm）
Complementary color is at opposite position
６４０

４２０
５８０

４７０

５１５
Solar Photovoltaic Cell
Basic Operation
• Solar cells are physically made of p-n junctions
• Photons of greater then Eg liberate charge
which travels out of solar cell
• For Si: 1.1 eV or 1129 nm, 15% efficient
• Excess energy goes to heating
Energy gap of various semiconductors
Silicon solar PV system
Luminescence
• Luminescence – emission of light by a material
• Electrons and holes are injected from electrodes, which
combines to emit light of energy with band gap

Cathode
Conduction band

• If residence time in trapped state is


relatively long (> 10-8 s)
Photo- Photo- -- phosphorescence
excitation emission
Eg • For short residence times (< 10-8 s)
-- fluorescence

Valence band
Anode
Photoluminescence
Hg atom

UV light
electrode electrode

• Arc between electrodes excites electrons in mercury atoms in the lamp to higher
energy levels.
• As electron falls back into their ground states, UV light is emitted
• Inside surface of tube lined with material that absorbs UV and reemits visible light
Ex, Ca10F2P6O24 with 20% of F - replaced by Cl -
• Adjust color by doping with metal cation (Sb3+ blu, Mn2+ orange-red)

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