Optical constants
Refractive index of Ag (Silver)
Choi et al. 2020: n,k 1.23–6.99 µm
- Data
- tabulated nk
- Range
- 1.231–6.988 µm
- Points
- 84
- State
- crystalline
- Licence
- CC0-1.0
Plot
Click the plot to set the calculator wavelength.
At one wavelength
- Refractive index n
- 0.936493
- Extinction coefficient k
- 21.4293
- Permittivity ε1
- -458.34
- Permittivity ε2
- 40.1369
- Absorption coefficient α
- 919076 cm⁻¹
- Penetration depth δ = λ/(2πk)
- 21.761 nm
- Abbe number Vd
- —
- Chromatic dispersion dn/dλ
- 0.637681 µm⁻¹
- Group index ng
- -0.931913
- Group velocity dispersion
- — fs²/mm
- Dispersion parameter D
- — ps/(nm·km)
- Photon energy
- 0.423154 eV
ε = (n + ik)², α = 4πk/λ, ng = n − λ dn/dλ, GVD = λ³/(2πc²) d²n/dλ², D = −(λ/c) d²n/dλ². Group-velocity dispersion is given for formula data only.
Use it in Lightsmith
Load this data in Python, simulate in one more line
pip install lightsmith
import lightsmith as ls
# Ag (Silver): Choi et al. 2020: n,k 1.23–6.99 µm
ag = ls.fetch_refractiveindex("main", "Ag", "Choi", ref="c5c2f188e848453def5970e347399d653df2ffc2")
print(ag.range_nm) # (1231, 6988) nm
eps = ag.eps([2930]) # complex permittivity
Downloads the original record once (pinned to the imported snapshot) and caches it.
import json, urllib.request
import lightsmith as ls
url = "https://materials.lightsmith.dev/v1/datasets/ds_982e43203f51/lightsmith"
ag = ls.Tabulated.model_validate(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(url)))
print(ag.source) # citation and provenance travel with the data
Any dataset here, as the library's Tabulated material (ag/choi-2020).
# ... load ag as above, then:
sim = ls.Simulation(
particles=[ls.Particle(shape=ls.Sphere(radius_nm=50), material=ag)],
medium_index=1.0,
wavelengths=ls.WavelengthRange(start_nm=1231, stop_nm=6988, num=81),
)
res = ls.solve(sim) # exact Mie for a sphere
print(res.q_ext) # extinction efficiency at each wavelength
Same spec runs with DDA, FDTD, BEM or T-matrix: ls.compare(sim, ["mie", "dda"]).
Lightsmith is open source (MIT): Mie, T-matrix, BEM, DDA, FDTD, RCWA, TMM, mode solvers and inverse design behind one spec, on CPU or GPU. GitHub.
Comments and conditions
References
Cite
J. Choi, F. Cheng, J. W. Cleary, L. Sun, C. K. Dass, J. R. Hendrickson, C.-Y. Wang, S. Gwo, C.-K. Shih, X. Li. Optical dielectric constants of single crystalline silver films in the long wavelength range, Opt. Mater. Express 10, 693-703 (2020) (See supplementary materials); Data from the refractiveindex.info database (M. N. Polyanskiy, Sci. Data 11, 94 (2024), doi:10.1038/s41597-023-02898-2)
Data
84 rows as published| λ (µm) | n | k |
|---|---|---|
| 1.231 | 0.169 | 8.852 |
| 1.243 | 0.173 | 8.946 |
| 1.256 | 0.176 | 9.041 |
| 1.269 | 0.179 | 9.137 |
| 1.282 | 0.183 | 9.235 |
| 1.295 | 0.187 | 9.336 |
| 1.309 | 0.191 | 9.439 |
| 1.323 | 0.195 | 9.543 |
| 1.337 | 0.199 | 9.65 |
| 1.352 | 0.203 | 9.76 |
| 1.366 | 0.208 | 9.871 |
| 1.382 | 0.212 | 9.985 |
| 1.397 | 0.217 | 10.102 |
| 1.413 | 0.222 | 10.221 |
| 1.429 | 0.227 | 10.343 |
| 1.446 | 0.232 | 10.467 |
| 1.463 | 0.237 | 10.595 |
| 1.481 | 0.243 | 10.725 |
| 1.499 | 0.249 | 10.859 |
| 1.517 | 0.255 | 10.996 |
| 1.536 | 0.261 | 11.136 |
| 1.555 | 0.267 | 11.279 |
| 1.575 | 0.274 | 11.427 |
| 1.595 | 0.281 | 11.577 |
| 1.616 | 0.289 | 11.732 |
| 1.637 | 0.296 | 11.891 |
| 1.659 | 0.304 | 12.053 |
| 1.681 | 0.312 | 12.221 |
| 1.705 | 0.32 | 12.392 |
| 1.728 | 0.329 | 12.569 |
| 1.753 | 0.339 | 12.75 |
| 1.778 | 0.348 | 12.937 |
| 1.804 | 0.358 | 13.129 |
| 1.83 | 0.369 | 13.327 |
| 1.858 | 0.38 | 13.53 |
| 1.886 | 0.391 | 13.739 |
| 1.915 | 0.403 | 13.955 |
| 1.945 | 0.416 | 14.177 |
| 1.976 | 0.429 | 14.407 |
| 2.008 | 0.443 | 14.643 |
| 2.041 | 0.458 | 14.888 |
| 2.075 | 0.473 | 15.14 |
| 2.111 | 0.489 | 15.402 |
| 2.147 | 0.506 | 15.672 |
| 2.185 | 0.524 | 15.951 |
| 2.224 | 0.542 | 16.24 |
| 2.265 | 0.562 | 16.54 |
| 2.307 | 0.583 | 16.851 |
| 2.351 | 0.605 | 17.173 |
| 2.396 | 0.629 | 17.508 |
| 2.444 | 0.654 | 17.855 |
| 2.493 | 0.68 | 18.217 |
| 2.544 | 0.708 | 18.593 |
| 2.597 | 0.737 | 18.985 |
| 2.653 | 0.769 | 19.393 |
| 2.711 | 0.803 | 19.819 |
| 2.771 | 0.839 | 20.264 |
| 2.835 | 0.877 | 20.729 |
| 2.901 | 0.918 | 21.215 |
| 2.97 | 0.962 | 21.725 |
| 3.043 | 1.01 | 22.258 |
| 3.12 | 1.061 | 22.819 |
| 3.2 | 1.116 | 23.408 |
| 3.285 | 1.175 | 24.028 |
| 3.375 | 1.239 | 24.681 |
| 3.469 | 1.309 | 25.371 |
| 3.569 | 1.384 | 26.098 |
| 3.675 | 1.467 | 26.869 |
| 3.787 | 1.557 | 27.686 |
| 3.906 | 1.655 | 28.554 |
| 4.033 | 1.764 | 29.477 |
| 4.169 | 1.883 | 30.461 |
| 4.314 | 2.015 | 31.513 |
| 4.469 | 2.161 | 32.638 |
| 4.636 | 2.323 | 33.846 |
| 4.816 | 2.504 | 35.144 |
| 5.011 | 2.708 | 36.547 |
| 5.222 | 2.937 | 38.063 |
| 5.452 | 3.196 | 39.71 |
| 5.702 | 3.491 | 41.502 |
| 5.977 | 3.829 | 43.463 |
| 6.28 | 4.218 | 45.613 |
| 6.615 | 4.669 | 47.986 |
| 6.988 | 5.196 | 50.611 |
Optical transmission calculator
Free-standing sample in vacuum, normal incidence- Transmittance T
- —
- Reflectance R
- —
Fresnel reflection calculator
- Rp
- —
- Rs
- —
- R = (Rp+Rs)/2
- —
- Phase φp
- —
- Phase φs
- —
- Brewster angle θB
- —
- Critical angle θC
- —
Epitaxially grown, atomically smooth, single crystalline thick Ag film. Room temperature.