Notes on Optical Constants

Extract

In a recent paper the present writer made an attempt to reduce the ordinary optical constants of matter to a more primitive form by introducing “scattering indices.” Their use solves half the problem of optics, for general formulae connect these indices with the behaviour of matter in bulk. There remains the deduction of the scattering indices from whatever we are assuming to be the reaction to light of the actual atoms, and even in the classical theory this encounters rather formidable difficulties of convergence. As long as we are content with no great rigour it is a fairly simple matter to deduce the scattering indices for any assumed model without any of those rather difficult arguments about the polarisation of the medium which play a part in the ordinary presentation.