25-Mar-20

Optical Properties of Solids

by
Mark Fox

Lecture
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.4, 1.4.1 Optical materials

1.4 Optical Materials

 The materials can be classified into five general categories:

1. Crystalline, insulators and semiconductors

2. Glasses

3. Metals

4. Molecular materials

5. Doped glasses and insulators

1
 25-Mar-20

1.4.1 Crystalline, insulators and semiconductors

 Consider the following figure 1.4(a) and 1.4 (b)

Crystalline, insulators and semiconductors

 The principle optical properties can be summarized as follows:

1. Sapphire has a high transmission in the wavelength range 0.2-6µm. This defines
the transparency range of the crystal. The transparency region of sapphire
include the whole of visible spectrum, which explains why it appears colorless
and transparent to human eyes.

2. Within the transparency range Absorption coefficient is very small and the
Refractive index may be taken to be real with no imaginary component. The
value of n is approx. constant and equal to 1.77 in sapphire

2
 25-Mar-20

The principle optical properties

3. The Transmission coefficient in the Transparency range is

determined by the Reflectivity of the sample

n=n+ik

k is small so no imaginary parts n=n

For sapphire with n=1.77, we have

 R=(n-1)2/(n+1)2

R=(1.77-1)2/(1.77+1)2 R=(0.77)2/(2.77)2 R=0.5929/7.6729

R=0.0077

 T=(1-R)2= 0.85

The principle optical properties

4. Vibrational absorption

The dip in the transmission in infrared around 3mm and the sharp drop in transmission for l>6
is caused by vibrational absorption. This absorption mechanism is analogous to infrared
absorption due to the vibration in polar molecules.

The vibrational excitations of a crystal lattice are called phonon mode. And so the vibrational
absorption in a solid is usually called phonon absorption or lattice absorption.

5. Fundamental absorption edge

The transmission drop sharply in ultraviolet spectral region for l<0.2 mm due to the absorption
by bound electrons. This called the fundamental absorption edge.

The wavelength of the fundamental edge is determined by the band gap of the insulator.

3
 25-Mar-20

Explanation of the principle optical properties Point (1)

 All insulator are colorless and transparent in the visible spectral region.
If they are colored this is caused by the impurities. The insulator do
absorb very strongly in the ultraviolet and in the infrared but this is
hidden from the human eye.

 Optical Windows and Lenses

The transparent region between infrared

and ultraviolet absorption bands is particularly

useful for making optical windows and lenses

Explanation of the principle optical properties

 The optical properties of crystalline material are anisotropic, and the value
of refractive index depends upon the direction of propagation of the light
relative to the crystallographic axes.

 The optical properties of semiconductor are similar to those of insulator.

Except that the electronic and vibrational transition occur at longer
wavelengths

 Figure 1.4 (b) Transmission spectrum of CdSe, The transparency range is

limited by electronic absorption at shorter wave length and lattice
absorption at longer wavelength

 Max transmission is about 60%, which is limited by surface reflectivities

4
 25-Mar-20

Explanation of the principle optical properties

 The shorter wavelength edge occurs beyond 700nm, which means that
the whole of transparency range lies outside the visible spectrum.

 Hence no visible light is transmitted through the crystal, and it has dark
metallic appearance to the eye

Explanation of the principle optical properties

 The data shows that the lower

limit of the transmission range
coincides closely with the
wavelength f fundamental band
gap.

 This happens because the band gap

determines the lower energy for
inter-band transition

 It is also observed that the

refractive index increases as the
band gap wavelength gets larger

5
 25-Mar-20

Explanation of the principle optical properties

Upper limit of transmission range

 The upper limit of transmission range is determined by the lattice
absorption for insulator and also by free carrier absorption.

 Free carrier absorption is present in semiconductor at room temperature

through the thermal excitation of electrons across the band gap or due to
the presence of impurities

 Insulators have very small free carrier densities due to their large band
gaps

Explanation of the principle optical properties

Luminescence
 One very important aspect of optical properties of semiconductor is
Luminescence which is present in direct band gap materials.

 Luminescence occur when electrons are promoted to the conduction band

 The main point is that the wavelength of the luminescence coincides with the
band gap of the semiconductor

 Quantum size effects in low dimensional semiconductors can be used to shift

the effective band gap to higher energy

 It provides the way to tune the emission wavelength by controlled variation of

parameters during crystal growth

6
25-Mar-20