Radiation pressure on a dielectric surface

摘要

The radiation pressure on an insulating dielectric medium should be calculable from the force acting on the polarization vector P. The well-known force proposed by Gordon (Phys. Rev. A, 8, 14 (1973) disappears in the case of a steady-state plane wave. A new form of force explicitly involving the polarization vector is proposed and applied to determine the partition of the incident momentum among the reflected and transmitted wave, and the dielectric medium. The momentum of electromagnetic wave in a dielectric medium thus found is consistent with the classical relationship, wave momentum flux density = wave intensity/wave velocity.