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nuttyquark
Nov21-04, 05:18 PM
I am kind of stuck in a question relating to phase velocity and group velocity.

I have been given that the index of refraction of a media is inversely propotional to the vacuum wavelength. And we are supposed to show the group velocity is half the phase velocity.

Now, the work I have done thus far is to have a relation between phase velocity and group velocity consisting of (dn/d{lambda}) where n is index of refraction. I don't know how to proceed from there..

Please guide me in the right direction.

DivGradCurl
Nov21-04, 06:16 PM
I'm not sure I have the right idea in mind, but here you go....

Group Velocity:

v_{\mbox{group}} = \frac{d\omega}{dk}

Phase Velocity:

v_{\mbox{phase}} = \frac{\omega}{k}

So, according to what you said: "we are supposed to show the group velocity is half the phase velocity", we have:

\frac{d\omega}{dk} = \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\omega}{k} \right)

Consider the following:

\omega = 2\pi f = 2\pi \left( \frac{c}{\lambda} \right) = 2\pi \left[ \frac{c}{\left(\ \frac{2\pi}{k} \right)} \right] = ck

Then:

\frac{d\omega}{dk} = c = n \left( \frac{\omega}{k} \right)

We obtain

n \left( \frac{\omega}{k} \right) = \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\omega}{k} \right)

and so

n = \frac{1}{2}

Again, this is just a shot in the dark...

nuttyquark
Nov21-04, 07:17 PM
You might have misunderstood the question thiago..

we are not given that group velocity is half phase velocity..i need to prove that equality using the fact the n=A/L0 where LO is vacuum wavelength..