Re: [Phys-l] question about total internal reflection

[Bernard Cleyet <bernardcleyet@redshift.com>]

That chapter is not as complete as I expected, so I checked (very cursorily) in III for tunneling and didn't find it in the TOC or barrier and transmission (except optical) in the index.

Eisberg devotes some time on this in a more advanced book (Quantum Physics of ...., Eisberg and Resnick), even to the point of using water waves in addition to the usual optical and Alpha decay examples.  When I discussed this w/ him recently, he answered, à la the Oakland poetess, "A wave is a wave is a wave."   The wave equations for optics and particles are of the same form, so both involve the hyperbolic sine in the transmission eqs.  vide: Fundamentals of Modern Physics p. 235 (Eisberg).  Feynman et alii describe the Berkeley Physics lab extra exercise using two prisms to show FTIR.  I demo'd this at a local section AAPT meeting, a later workshop on microwave optics, and used it in the Lab. I taught at the NPS (Monterey). I intend to post some of this on my site (.cleyet.org)

bc, eventually.


On 2010, Jun 10, , at 10:21, John Denker wrote:

> > Can anyone point me toward an explanation?
>
> Feynman volume II chapter 33 "Reflections from Surfaces".
> See e.g. equation (33.55) and the unnumbered equations
> right above that.  Also equation (33.52).  Also all of
> section 33-6 "Total internal reflection" ... including
> diagrams of how to measure the evanescent wave.
> __________