Abstract

Ray tracing in uniaxial anisotropic materials is important because they are widely used for instrumentation, liquid-crystal displays, laser cavities, and quantum experiments. There are previous works regarding ray tracing refraction and reflection formulae using the common electromagnetic theory approach, but only the refraction formulae have been deduced using Huygens’s principle. In this paper we obtain the reflection expressions using this unconventional approach with a specific coordinate system in which both refraction and reflection formulae are simplified as well as their deduction. We compute some numerical examples to compare them with the common expressions obtained using electromagnetic theory.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

Geometrical ray tracing in uniaxial crystals: direct formulas and the equivalence between the electromagnetic wave method and Huygens’ principle

Pengqian Wang
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 35(7) 1114-1123 (2018)

Huygens’s principle and rays in uniaxial anisotropic media. I. Crystal axis normal to refracting surface

Maximino Avendaño-Alejo, Orestes N. Stavroudis, and Ana Rosa Boyain y Goitia
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 19(8) 1668-1673 (2002)

Huygens’s principle and rays in uniaxial anisotropic media. II. Crystal axis orientation arbitrary

Maximino Avendaño-Alejo and Orestes N. Stavroudis
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 19(8) 1674-1679 (2002)

Ray-Tracing Formulas for Uniaxial Crystals

Orestes N. Stavroudis
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52(2) 187-191 (1962)

Ray refraction in uniaxial crystals by Fermat’s principle

Pengqian Wang
Appl. Opt. 57(18) 4950-4954 (2018)