Total internal reflection

The larger the angle to the normal, the smaller is the fraction of
light transmitted rather than reflected, until the angle at which
total internal reflection occurs. (The color of the rays is to help
distinguish the rays, and is not meant to indicate any color
dependence.)

Total internal reflection in a block ofacrylic

Total internal reflection is a phenomenon that happens when a

propagating wave strikes a medium boundary at an angle larger
than a particular critical angle with respect to the normal to the
surface. If the refractive index is lower on the other side of the
boundary and the incident angle is greater than the critical angle,
the wave cannot pass through and is entirely reflected.
The critical angle is the angle of incidence above which the
total internal reflectance occurs. This is particularly common as
an optical phenomenon, where light waves are involved, but it
occurs with many types of waves, such as electromagnetic
waves in general or sound waves.
When a wave crosses a boundary between materials with
different kinds of refractive indices, the wave will be
partially refracted at the boundary surface, and partially
reflected. However, if the angle of incidence is greater (i.e. the
direction of propagation or ray is closer to being parallel to the
boundary) than the critical angle the angle of incidence at
which light is refracted such that it travels along the boundary
then the wave will not cross the boundary and instead be totally
reflected back internally. This can only occur where the wave
travels from a medium with a higher refractive index (n 1) to one
with a lower refractive index (n2). For example, it will occur
with light when passing from glass to air, but not when passing
from air to glass.

Total internal reflection in a semi-circular acrylic block

Contents

Optical description
Critical angle
Derivation of evanescent wave
Fractional total internal reflection
Phase shift upon total internal reflection
Applications
Examples in everyday life

Optical description
Total internal reflection of light can be demonstrated using a
semi-circular block of glass or plastic. A "ray box" shines a
narrow beam of light (a "ray") onto the glass. The semi-circular
shape ensures that a ray pointing towards the centre of the flat
face will hit the curved surface at a right angle; this will prevent

refraction at the air/glass boundary of the curved surface. At the

glass/air boundary of the flat surface, what happens will depend
on the angle. Where c is the critical angle measurement which
is caused by the sun or a light source (measured normal to the
surface):

If < c, the ray will split. Some of the ray will reflect off
the boundary, and some will refract as it passes through. This
is not total internal reflection.

If > c, the entire ray reflects from the boundary. None

passes through. This is called total internal reflection.

This physical property makes optical fibers useful and

prismatic binoculars possible. It is also what gives diamonds
their distinctive sparkle, as diamond has an unusually high
refractive index.

Critical angle

Illustration of Snell's law,

The critical angle is the angle of incidence above which total

internal reflection occurs. The angle of incidence is measured
with respect to the normal at the refractive boundary (see
diagram illustratingSnell's law). Consider a light ray passing
from glass into air. The light emanating from the interface is
bent towards the glass. When the incident angle is increased
sufficiently, the transmitted angle (in air) reaches 90 degrees. It
is at this point no light is transmitted into air. The critical
angle is given by Snell's law,
.
Rearranging Snell's Law, we get incidence
.

To find the critical angle, we find the value for when

90
and thus
. The resulting value of is equal to the critical
angle .
Now, we can solve for , and we get the equation for the critical
angle:

If the incident ray is precisely at the critical angle, the refracted

ray is tangent to the boundary at the point of incidence. If for
example, visible light were traveling through acrylic glass (with
an index of refraction of approximately 1.50) into air (with an
index of refraction of 1.00), the calculation would give the
critical angle for light from acrylic into air, which is
.
Light incident on the border with an angle less than 41.8 would
be partially transmitted, while light incident on the border at
larger angles with respect to normal would be totally internally
reflected.
If the fraction
is greater than 1, then arcsine is not defined
meaning that total internal reflection does not occur even at
very shallow or grazing incident angles.

So the critical angle is only defined when

is less than 1.

Refraction of light at the interface between two media, including total internal reflection.

A special name is given to the angle of incidence that produces

an angle of refraction of 90. It is called the critical angle.

Derivation of evanescent wave

An important side effect of total internal reflection is the
propagation of an evanescent wave across the boundary surface.
Essentially, even though the entire incident wave is reflected
back into the originating medium, there is some penetration into
the second medium at the boundary. The evanescent wave
appears to travel along the boundary between the two materials,
leading to the Goos-Hnchen shift.
If a plane wave, confined to the xz plane, is incident on
a dielectric with an angle and wavevector then a transmitted
ray will be created with a corresponding angle of transmittance
as shown in Fig. 1. The transmitted wavevector is given by:
If

, then

since in the relation

obtained from Snell's law,

is greater than one.
As a result of this
becomes complex:
The electric field of the transmitted plane wave is given
by
and so evaluating this further one obtains:
and
.
Using the fact that
where

and Snell's law, one finally obtains

and

This wave in the optically less dense medium is known as the

evanescent wave. Its characterized by its propagation in the x
direction and its exponential attenuation in the z direction.
Although there is a field in the second medium, it can be shown
that no energy flows across the boundary. The component of
Poynting vector in the direction normal to the boundary is finite,
but its time average vanishes. Whereas the other two
components of Poynting vector (here x-component only), and
their time averaged values are in general found to be finite.

When a glass of water is held firmly, ridges making up the

fingerprints are made visible by frustrated total internal
reflection. Light tunnels from the glass into the ridges through
the very short air gap.

Fractional total internal reflection

Under "ordinary conditions" it is true that the creation of
an evanescent wave does not affect the conservation of energy,
i.e. the evanescent wave transmits zero net energy. However, if a
third medium with a higher refractive index than the low-index
second medium is placed within less than several wavelengths
distance from the interface between the first medium and the
second medium, the evanescent wave will be different from the
one under "ordinary conditions" and it will pass energy across
the second into the third medium. (See evanescent wave
coupling.) This process is called "frustrated" total internal
reflection (FTIR) and is very similar to quantum tunneling. The
quantum tunneling model is mathematically analogous if one
thinks of the electromagnetic field as being the wave function of
the photon. The low index medium can be thought of as a
potential barrier through which photons can tunnel.
The transmission coefficient for FTIR is highly sensitive to the
spacing between the third medium (the function is
approximately exponential until the gap is almost closed)and the
second medium, so this effect has often been used to modulate
optical transmission and reflection with a large dynamic range.
An example application of this principle is the displays as
developed at the New York Universitys Media Research Lab.

Phase shift upon total internal reflection

A lesser-known aspect of total internal reflection is that the
reflected light has an angle dependent phase shift between the
reflected and incident light. Mathematically this means that
the Fresnel reflection coefficient becomes a complex rather than
a real number. This phase shift is polarization dependent and
grows as the incidence angle deviates further from the critical
angle toward grazing incidence.
The polarization dependent phase shift is long known and was
used by Fresnel to design the Fresnel rhomb which allows to
transform circular polarization to linear polarization and vice
versa for a wide range of wavelengths (colors), in contrast to the
quarter wave plate. The polarization dependent phase shift is
also the reason why TE and TM guided modeshave
different dispersion relations.

Applications

Mirror like effect

Total internal reflection is the operating principle of optical

fibers, which are used in endoscopes and telecommunications.

Total internal reflection is the operating principle of

automotive rain
sensors,
which
control
automatic windscreen/windshield wipers.

Another application of total internal reflection is the spatial

filtering of light.

Prismatic binoculars use the principle of total internal

reflections to get a very clear image.

Some multi-touch screens use frustrated total internal

reflection in combination with a camera and appropriate
software to pick up multiple targets.

Gonioscopy employs total internal reflection to view the

anatomical angle formed between the eye's cornea and iris.

A gait analysis instrument, CatWalk XT, uses frustrated

total internal reflection in combination with a high speed camera
to capture and analyze footprints of laboratory rodents.

Optical fingerprinting devices use frustrated total internal

reflection in order to record an image of a person's fingerprint
without the use of ink.

A Total internal reflection fluorescence microscope uses

the evanescent wave produced by TIR to excite fluorophores
close to a surface. This is useful for the study of surface
properties of biological samples.

Examples in everyday life

Total internal reflection can be seen at the air-water boundary

Total internal reflection can be observed while swimming, when

one opens one's eyes just under the water's surface. If the water
is calm, its surface appears mirror-like.
One can demonstrate total internal reflection by filling a sink or
bath with water, taking a glass tumbler, and placing it upsidedown over the plug hole (with the tumbler completely filled with
water). While water remains both in the upturned tumbler and in
the sink surrounding it, the plug hole and plug are visible since
the angle of refraction between glass and water is not greater

than the critical angle. If the drain is opened and the tumbler is
kept in position over the hole, the water in the tumbler drains out
leaving the glass filled with air, and this then acts as the plug
vanished. Viewing this from above, the tumbler now appears
mirrored because light reflects off the air/glass interface.
Another common example of total internal reflection is a
critically cut diamond. This is what gives it maximum brilliance
and sparkles.