Strength of electromagnetic, acoustic and Schrodinger reflections

摘要

The notion of reflection strength S of a plane wave by an arbitrary non-absorbing layer is introduced, so that the intensity of reflection is R = tanh(2)S. We have shown that the total strength of reflection by a sequence of elements is expressed through particular element strengths and mutual phases between them by a simple addition rule; in particular, its possible maximum is the sum of the absolute strengths of constituents. We show that the standard Fresnel reflection may be understood in terms of variable S as a sum or difference of two separate contributions, due to an impedance step and a speed step. Strength of reflection for propagating acoustic and quantum mechanical waves is also discussed.