OPTI 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Optical Power, Absorptance, Transmittance

• School: University of Arizona
• Department: Optical Sciences
• Course: OPTI 200
• Professor: ALL

Document Summary

There are classifications of lasers, up to iiia should be safe pointer type power is ok. Anything above half of a watt are dangerous. Reflectance = the ratio of optical power reflected from a surface tp the incident optical power. Whenever light traveling from one medium encounters another medium, some of thr light will be reflected. Each medium has a unique index of refraction, n = c/v. Refraction occurs whenever light traveling in a medium with refractive n encounters a different medium with refractive index. Absorprtance = the ratio of the optical power absorbed in a medium to the incense optical power. Whenever light is absorbed in a medium, some of the light energy will be converted to another form of energy, most often heat. Transmittance = the ratio of optical power transmitted through a medium to the incident optical power. If a medium has very low absorptance, most of the might will be transmitted through the sample.