Recent content by Lacan

Donor ionization energies are calculated via the hydrogen-like model and use the static dielectric constant and effective mass to modify the screening between the electron and the donor. Nice and simple, I get it. But in a material the ionized electron needs to go someplace - presumably the...

Ah =) Thanks for the explination. I knew about hybridization but never that it went to such an extent. We've never talked about it in detail in any classes either. Hybridization to a 2nd neighbor is really interesting - I didn't think that would happen. So, when were talking about...

Well, but UV light is still absorbed by electron transitions within the atom? The diffrence in UV absorption in arangements of Si has to do with the lattice, yes. But that doesn't mean that the 'lattice' absorbs it. It depends on the electronic structure of the ion and lattice. Like the...

That depends on the wavelength of the light right?. Individual atom's electrons(well, if were talking about ions...i work with ceramics so i usually assume this xD) will absorb UV light, the UV light matches atomic transitions(s1 to p3 or w/e, the exact transition depend son the atom...

Already did. It actually isn't that helpful. At the end of the post: "So the lattice does not absorb this photon [due to phonons] and [instead] it is re-emitted but with a very slight delay. This, naively, is the origin of the apparent slowdown of the light speed in the material. The emitted...

I'm a materials engineering junior-to-be(yay summer), and like most material scientists i just kind of assume things I don't really understand when it comes to physics =P But I was pondering about refractive indexes today and... Well, WHY does light slow down in a medium? The refractive...