Amplified Total Internal Reflection at the Surface of Gain Medium

Total Internal Reflection (TIR) is the phenomenon whereby a light wave incidenton a boundary is completely reflected when the wave’s incidence angle exceeds a crit-ical angle. For decades there has been debate about whether amplified TIR froma medium exhibiting optical gain is possible, and desire for a theory to explain it.Authors have suggested theories both in favor and in doubt of the phenomenon’s ex-istence, and experimental evidence has arose supporting the existence and seeminglysimultaneously contradicting proposed theoretical models. In this thesis, reflectioncoefficients for plane waves are calculated by satisfying boundary conditions fromMaxwell’s equations at the reflecting surface for both optically lossy and gainy me-dia. Plane wave reflectivity is found to exhibit is discontinuous jump from belowunity to above as the incidence angle passes through the critical angle, confirmingthe existence of amplified TIR. Fourier analysis is used to show that finite beams alsoexhibit amplified TIR, but do not experience the surprising discontinuous jump inreflectivity at the critical angle.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Toledo

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Orndorff, Josh

Contributors dc:contributor

• Karpov, Victor

• Physics
• Optics
• single surface
• amplified
• total internal reflection
• TIR
• gain medium
• popuilation inversion
• reflectivity
• maxwell's equations
• optically active
• plane waves
• gaussian beam

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: some rights reserved. It is licensed for use under a Creative Commons license. Specific terms and permissions are available from this document's record in the OhioLINK ETD Center.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1365156891

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:toledo1365156891