Question

Absolute refractive index of a material depends upon:

• A. Frequency of incident light
• B. Size of material
• C. Density and temperature of material
• D. Wavelength of incident light

Answer 1

Answer: (C), (D)

Density and temperature of material
Wavelength of incident light

$Absoluterefractiveindex$ = $\frac{Speedoflightinvacuum}{speedoflightinmedium}$.

Raise in temperature increases speed of light in medium as its optical density decreases. At the same time for different wavelength of incident light have different refractive index.

Refractive index can be written as $n=\frac{{\lambda }_v}{{\lambda }_m}$, where ${\lambda }_v$ is the wavelength in vacuum and ${\lambda }_m$ is the wavelength of the medium.

Absolute refractive index of a material depends upon density and temperature of the material. It also depends upon the wavelength of the incident light.