The term optical surface generally refers to a boundary between two media with possibly different
indices of refraction , for example, the boundary between air and glass or between two types
of glass. A real fused silica mirror in an interferometer features two surfaces, which interact
with a reflected or transmitted laser beam. However, in some cases, one of these surfaces has
been treated with an anti-reflection (AR) coating to minimise the effect on the transmitted
beam.
The terms mirror and beam splitter are sometimes used to describe a (theoretical) optical surface in a
model. We define real amplitude coefficients for reflection and transmission and
, with
,
so that the field amplitudes can be written as
The free propagation of a distance through a medium with index of refraction
can be described
with the following set of equations:
Note that we use above relations to demonstrate various mathematical methods for the analysis of optical systems. However, refined versions of the coupling equations for optical components, including those for spaces and mirrors, are also required, see, for example, Section 2.6.
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2010-1 | ![]() This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Problems/comments to |