BITS Pilani

Pilani Campus

Course No. : CHEM F343

Course Title: Inorganic Chemistry III

23/01/2023
 Transmission: Cut-off frequencies in Dielectric
Materials
For dielectric materials, the transmission occurs through a window
Cut-off frequencies
• Two cut-off frequencies
• The short, wavelength-side absorption edge is determined by the band gap (Eg)
• Sapphire (band gap, 10eV), TiO2 (3.2 eV), NaCl (8.5 eV) etc are transparent to
the white light.

What’s about long wavelength cut-off?

• the transmission in dielectrics is limited on the higher wavelength side by the
lattice vibration on the crystal
• the long wavelength side absorption band edge is determined by the
interaction of relatively low energy photons with the lattice vibrations or
phonons
• wavelength cut-off in the long wavelength side increases with increasing ionic
or atomic mass (KCl or GeO2 glass will remain transparent to higher
wavelengths than those for SiO2 glass)
 Transmission: Cut-off frequencies in Dielectric
Materials (contd)
Factors those influences on the transparency of materials
• porosity, second phases or impurities can have a significant effect on the
absorption of radiation
Examples
 Opaqueness in ceramics: porosity in ceramics scatters photons; even a small
amount of porosity (less than one volume percent) may make the ceramic
opaque
 Opaqueness alumina: alumina that has relatively low density is opaque,
however, high-density alumina is optically transparent (less porosity)
 Opaqueness in glass: Crystalline precipitates with different index of refraction
than the matrix material, also cause scattering (these are called crystalline
opacifiers), it makes the transparent glass to translucent and opaque
 Transparency & absorption in metals (high absorption coefficient)
Because there is no energy gap in metals, virtually any photon has sufficient
energy to excite an e into a higher energy level, thus absorbing the energy of
the excited photon
Transmission: Cut-off frequencies in Dielectric
Materials (contd)

 In dielectric (for intrinsic semiconductors)

 large band gap
 if the energy of the incident photon is
less than the band gap, then energy
is not absorbed;
 it will be transparent if there is no
defects
E.g., glass, amorphous polymers such
as acrylics, polycarbonates and
polysulfones
 For extrinsic semiconductors
 The donor or acceptor provides
additional energy levels for absorption.
 absorption occurs when photons have
energies greater than Ea or Ed
 Transmission: Cut-off frequencies in Dielectric
Materials (contd)
 In general, semiconductors are opaque to short-wavelength radiation
but transparent to long wavelength photons

Q. Si and Ge appear opaque to visible light, but they are transparent to the
longer wavelength infrared radiation-why?

Q. The narrow band gap semiconductor, HgCdTe used for detection of

infrared radiation
(these detector materials have to be cooled to lower temperature (liq
nitrogen)