Does conductors have refractive index for electrons?
Jarek Duda
So shouldn't there be more analogies from optics?
Remember that single electron can go through two slits at the same
time...
Photons interact with local matter (electron/photons) which results
(in first approximation) in complex coefficient (n) - refractive
index.
It's imaginary part describes absorption - corresponds to resistance
for conductor.
It's real part corresponds to phase velocity/wavelength, is there
analogy in free electron behavior?
Different conductors have different local structure, electron
distributions etc. - so maybe they have a difference in refraction
index...
If yes, there should be more effects from optics, like partial
internal reflection, interferences ... we could use in practice.
I know - electrons unlike photons interact with each other - so
electron waves should quickly loose it's coherence.
But maybe we could use such quantum effects on short distance in
crystals?
Or maybe in one dimension - imagine for example long (-CH=CH-
CH=CH- ...) molecule.
It's free electrons should behave like one-dimensional plane wave.
Now exchange hydrogen to for example fluorine (-CF=CF-) - it still
should be a good conductor, but the behavior of electrons should be
somehow different ... shouldn't it have different refraction index?
If yes, for example (-CF=CH-) should have intermediate...
What for?
Imagine for example something like anti-reflective coating from
optics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-reflective_coating
Let say: thick layer of higher refractive index material and thin of
lower.
The destructive interference in thin layer happen only from the anti-
reflective side (thin layer) - shouldn't it reflect a smaller amount
of photons/electrons than from the second side?
If we choose reflective layer for dominant thermal energy of photons/
electrons, shouldn't it spontaneously create gradient of densities?
For example to change heat energy into electricity...