Open AccessOn the absorption and scattering of light
Publication year - 1920
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical and physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9150
pISSN - 0950-1207
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.1920.0068
Subject(s) - scattering , absorption (acoustics) , extinction (optical mineralogy) , light scattering , optics , transmission (telecommunications) , physics , computer science , telecommunications
When a beam of light passes through a material medium it suffers gradual extinction, mainly through molecular scattering, but partly also through conversion into heat. The two processes should be clearly distinguished, as there is some danger of confusing the issue if the term “absorption” is applied to what is a mere diversion of the light energy from its original direction. It is easy enough to form an idea of the mechanism involved in scattering, but the process of absorption is more difficult to represent analytically. In order to obtain a clearer view of its fundamental features, I propose to discuss the transmission of light through a medium the molecules of which have only one free period of vibration.