PHYSICS RAY OPTICS AND OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS

Total Internal Reflection

Total Internal Reflection

 When a ray of light passes from a denser to rarer medium (say from water to air), it bends away from
the normal and as the angle of incidence increases in denser medium , the angle of refraction in rarer
medium also increases and at certain angle, the angle of refraction becomes 900.
 This angle of incidence is called as critical angle (c)
 When angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle, the light ray comes back to the same medium
after reflection from the interface.
 This phenomenon is known as total internal reflection.

 Let the surface separate the rarer medium from denser medium and the rays are travelling from
denser to rarer medium or we may say object is at denser medium.
 A ray of light OP which strikes the surface normally is refracted into rarer medium as such along PQ.
 Another ray which strikes obliquely at point A after refraction bends away from the normal, as there is
an increase in the angle of incidence.
 The angle of refraction increases till a certain angle of incidence called critical angle i.e (i=c). The
refracted ray travels along the surface of separation i.e. when i=c and r = 900.
 Further, when the angle of incidence is further increased i.e. i > c, then the ray instead of refracting
comes back to the same path after reflection.
 This whole effect is called as total internal reflection.

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 By Snell’s Law
sini sin C
Here ba    sin C as sin 90  1
sinr sin 90
1 1
a b  
b a sin C
This is the relation between the refractive
index and criticle angle.

CONDITIONS FOR TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTIONS

 The ray must travel from denser medium to rarer medium
 The angle of incidence (i) must be greater than the critical angle (C)

CRITICAL ANGLE DEPENDENCY

 Greater the refractive index lesser will be critical angle.

(a) For (glass  air) pair  Cglass  42

(b) For (water  air) pair  Cwater  49
(c) For (diamond  air) pair  Cdiamond  24

 Wavelength of Light

Critical angle depends up on wavelength as

1
  sin C

(a) R  B  CR  CB
1   
(b) sin C   1  2  2
1 2  2 1 1

 Temperature
With a rise in temperature, the refractive index of a material decreases, and therefore critical angle
increases.

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Demonstration of Total Internal Reflection

Take some clear water in a plain glass beaker. Make the water turbid by adding some fine soil in it. Take
a laser beam and shine its beam through the turbid water. The path of the beam shines.

 When the laser beam is directed from below the beaker ‘Fig (1)’, it undergoes partial reflection as well
as partial refraction. The reflected beams make spot on the table.
 When the laser beam is directed from one side of beaker ‘Fig (3)’ and adjust its direction in such a way
that refraction is totally absent and beam is totally reflected back to water from the upper surface. This
is called TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION.
 If repeat this experiment with long test tube then direct the laser beam from the top of the tube then
the beam is internally reflected repeatedly from the walls of the test tube.

Fig (1) Fig (2)

Application of Total Internal Reflection (Diamonds)

 Diamond shines brilliantly due to total internal reflection of light. For a diamond, the value of μ = 2.42
and also the critical angle would be equal to 24.40.
 As critical angle is so small that it can be cut into a number of faces. When light enters at one face of
diamond, at i > c, then it suffers multiple reflections so that light remain inside the diamond and hence
diamond shines brilliantly.

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Mirage

 It is an optical illusion seen in the deserts or metallic road. During a hot summer day, an inverted
image of distant object is observed which creates impressions that such distant object is on the bank
of the water. This happens because of TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION.

 On the hot summer day, the temperature near the Earth’s surface is more. However, it decreases with
height, and so the density of air near the Earth’s surface is less i.e. it increases with height.
 As the ray of light travels from the top of a distant tree, it continuously suffers refractions, and thus
bends away from normal continuously.
 At a particular layer when i > c, the ray of light suffers total internal reflection and appears to be the
inverted image. It creates an impression that the distant tree is on the bank of pool of water. This is
called mirage.
 This effect of total internal reflection is generally seen in desert areas where the temperature during
the day time is very high.

Total Reflecting Prism

These are right angled prism where one angle is 900 and the other two are 450. These are the right angled
glass prism used to change the path of light without any loss of light energy.

These are based on total internal reflection of light.

For glass   1.5

1
C  420 (  )
sinC

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 If a ray of light strikes one of its faces, perpendicularly, it enters the prism without any change in
direction and meets the hypotenuse at an angle of 450.
 Then, when i > c, the ray will be totally reflected and this rays strikes perpendicularly with other face
and comes out of the prism. Hence, the path of light is changed as shown in above figures.
 Again this effect is due to total internal reflection, where the object is placed somewhere and the
image is formed by making an angle of 900.
 This concept has various applications as it is used in various purposes to get an image at appropriate
place.

Optical Fibres

These are based upon the principle of total internal reflection of light. Optical fibres consist of several
thousands of fine quality fiber of glass or quartz and each fibre consist of a core and cladding.

 The refractive index of the material of the core (n1 ) is higher than that of the cladding (n2).
 When the light is incident on one end of fibre at a small angle, the light passes insight and undergoes
repeated total internal reflections along the fibre and finally comes out.
 The angle of reflections occurs along the fibre and finally comes out.
 The angle of incidence is always larger than the critical angle of the core material with respect to its
cladding.
 Even if the fibre is bent, the light can easily travel through the fibre.
 A bundle of optical fibres can be used as a ‘light pipe’ in medical and optical examination.
 Optical fibres can also be used for transmitting and receiving electrical signals which are converted to
light by suitable transducers.

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