Light dispersion - Hikaribunsan

Japanese: 光分散 - ひかりぶんさん

When a thin, parallel beam of white light is incident on a prism, the light that leaves the prism is split into various colors. This occurs because the refractive index of light varies with wavelength, and this phenomenon in which the refractive index of light (in other words, the speed of light in a medium) varies with wavelength (frequency) is called optical dispersion. The dispersion phenomenon occurs due to the polarization of the medium caused by light, and can be explained phenomenologically as follows: When light travels uniformly through a medium, because light is an electromagnetic wave, its electric field component causes the electrons in the medium to vibrate, causing the light to be scattered.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

プリズムに細い平行な白色光を入射させると，プリズムから出る光はいろいろな色に分かれる。これは光の屈折率が波長によって異なるために起こるもので，このように光の屈折率(いいかえれば媒質中の光の速度)が波長(振動数)によって異なる現象を光分散という。分散現象は光による媒質の分極により生ずるもので，現象論的には次のように説明される。すなわち，光が一様に媒質中を進むとき，光は電磁波であるため，その電場成分によって媒質中の電子がゆり動かされ，光が散乱される。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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