Complex Permittivity
In nonattenuating media, the permittivity and refractive index are related by:
- (SI), (cgs)
where is the permeability and is the permittivity. In attenuating media, the same relation is used, but the permittivity is allowed to be a complex number, called complex permittivity:
- (SI), (cgs).
Squaring both sides and using the results of the previous section gives:
(this is in SI; in cgs, drop the and ).
This approach is also called the complex dielectric constant; the dielectric constant is synonymous with in SI, or simply in cgs.
Read more about this topic: Mathematical Descriptions Of Opacity
Famous quotes containing the word complex:
“When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)