- #1
rwooduk
- 762
- 59
Hi, we are currently working on Huygens constructions and I'm having trouble visualising it. I understand that, say if a light wave is incident upon an anisotropic material that if you consider it's electric field going perperdicular in one direction it will be refracted differently than if you consider it's electric field perpendicular in another direction (due to the refractive index of the material effecting each perpendicular componant differently.)
My question is does light have 2 perpendicular components of electric field? so you would effectively have 2 beams going through the material at different speeds, due to one perpendicular componant of light being refracted more than the other? Or would you consider each perpendicular componant seperately (i.e. it only has one at any time)?
Getting a bit lost with this!
Please see attached images, the dotted line is for one componant, the plane wave line is for the other perpendicular componant.
How do I visualise this?
Thanks for any help!
My question is does light have 2 perpendicular components of electric field? so you would effectively have 2 beams going through the material at different speeds, due to one perpendicular componant of light being refracted more than the other? Or would you consider each perpendicular componant seperately (i.e. it only has one at any time)?
Getting a bit lost with this!
Please see attached images, the dotted line is for one componant, the plane wave line is for the other perpendicular componant.
How do I visualise this?
Thanks for any help!