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Hi,
I know this is dumb question, and I should be able to figure it out and move past it, but I can't. The optics book I have begins its treatment of Fabry-Perot cavities by considering the case of an undamped optical resonater (perfectly reflecting mirrors). Here's a quote from it:
If that occurs, what happened to the energy in the wave?
I know this is dumb question, and I should be able to figure it out and move past it, but I can't. The optics book I have begins its treatment of Fabry-Perot cavities by considering the case of an undamped optical resonater (perfectly reflecting mirrors). Here's a quote from it:
In order for a plane wave to exist in the cavity, it must return to exactly the same phase after one round trip through the cavity. In this case, it will constructively interfere with itself. Otherwise, the phase will precess on each successive round trip, and eventually lead to destructive interterference.
If that occurs, what happened to the energy in the wave?