Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T02:18:59.246Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Notes on Optical Constants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

C. G. Darwin
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh

Extract

The tensor calculus introduced in a recent paper proves a powerful method of investigating the light scattered laterally as exemplified in the blue of the sky. The late Lord Rayleigh worked out the effect on the polarisation of having non-spherical molecules, and the present note is practically a repetition of his work but with a somewhat greater generality. The method has the advantage that it does not become unmanageable for molecules of a more complicated type of asymmetry, whereas a perusal of his work suggests that it would be a very complicated matter to give the lateral scattering from a set of arbitrary orientated “optically active” molecules. As this case has at present no practical interest, I have merely indicated the procedure so that it could easily be applied when required.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1925

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

* The Optical Constants of Matter,” Camb. Phil. Soc. Trans., vol. XXXV, p. 137 (1924). I use the notation of that work without explanation, marking references with a *.Google Scholar

Rayleigh, , Phil. Mag. vol. xxxv, p. 373 (1918).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Rayleigh, , Proc. Roy. Soc. A, 97, p. 435 (1920).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

* See Sommerfeld, , Atomic Structure (Eng. transl.), p. 251.Google Scholar

If q is a function of the l's, this may not be accurate, but its order of magnitude must be right.Google Scholar

* Siertsema, L. H., Arch. Neerl. vol. II, p. 291 (1899).Google Scholar