Prism is a dipersive element. The resolving power and angular dispersion of prism depend on the materials with trasparency in different spectral ranges: FIR,MIR,NIR,Visible and VUV. We need to use different optical materials such as ZnSe,Bk7 ,Qurtz or CaF2 etc. No efficient opical materials are found with the dispersive properties in X and gamma ranges. The latter are energetic photons that exibit different interactions with matter such as compton scattering, photo-electric and even pair production and phot disintegration. On the other hand, the low frequency EM such as THz and microwave radiation usually are in cut off range of glasses and those optical materials fail to be dispersive at those spectral ranges.
light waves are electromagnetical waves, so I am not sure what your question is - are you asking if the same electromagnetic wave would be affected differently when it passes a prism than it would be when passing through the human eye?
Indeed. Actually, most probably you know that there is infra red light, for example, which is not in the visible part of the spectrum. However, we can take infra-red photographs, and infra-red is used in the implementation of "night vision" systems like this: https://www.google.com/shopping/product/8971970252977032331?q=infrared+prismatics&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.65397613,d.aWw,pv.xjs.s.en_US.Cf9mlb6I5DA.O&biw=1335&bih=929&tch=1&ech=1&psi=4u1aU9DoH8m3yATtjoCoAQ.1398468067125.5&ei=7e1aU-biPPDlyAGom4H4Ag&ved=0CJIBEKYrMAM. Of course the properties of glass in its interaction with light depend on frequency. If the frequency is too low, or to high, the prism will stop working as expected from a consideration of its interaction with visible light.
Johannes, I do understand that light is an electromagnetic wave. There are both high and low frequency electromagnetic waves which are not visible. My question involves what effect, if any, would passing through a prism have on these these non-visible electromagnetic waves. Thank you. Oscar, thank you for your answer. It was my hunch that higher than visible electromagnetic waves might not pass through at all. In the case of gamma rays, I expect they would pass without alteration, or am I mistaken?
Another related question. The photo-electric effect involves photons activating electrons. Would light passed through a prism and then directed at an electron source effect the photo-electric effect? If so, how?
Gamma rays are highly energetic. They will suffer inelastic scattering, see for example: http://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.127.1197 . Gamma rays are even dispersed by air: http://people.umass.edu/eppex/veritas/
Prism is a dipersive element. The resolving power and angular dispersion of prism depend on the materials with trasparency in different spectral ranges: FIR,MIR,NIR,Visible and VUV. We need to use different optical materials such as ZnSe,Bk7 ,Qurtz or CaF2 etc. No efficient opical materials are found with the dispersive properties in X and gamma ranges. The latter are energetic photons that exibit different interactions with matter such as compton scattering, photo-electric and even pair production and phot disintegration. On the other hand, the low frequency EM such as THz and microwave radiation usually are in cut off range of glasses and those optical materials fail to be dispersive at those spectral ranges.
David, prisms are used in spectral ranges in which the radiation is (nearly) not absorbed. But the absorptions occurring at other frequencies of the radiation nevertheless affect the way in which the light propagates through the material. The outcome is that the speed of light varies (slightly) with frequency. In a prism this variation is used to spatially separate the pathways of rays of different frequencies.
Other than that, nothing happens to the radiation. Think of a material where some radiation is able to produce the photoelectric effect. This ability is neither enhanced nor reduced by passing the light through a prism. You will lose some intensity in general, though, since some fraction of the radiation is being reflected at the surfaces of the prism.
Does this cover your question?
If the prism's geometric dimensions will be much bigger than the ectromagnetic wave length - then there shouldn't be any qualitative difference.
A prism works on the principle that the matter it is made of has a refractive index different from unity in the frequency range of the white light radiation that passes through it. So it is not limited to visible light. One might envisage a prism made from a material that has a refractive index different from unity at radio frequencies. A broadband radio signal passing through it would be refracted in a similar way as a light beam gets refracted in a glass prism.
Moreover, the refractive index is wavelength dependent and usually reduces smoothly at longer wavelengths according to Sellmeier eq. It leads to varying slope dn/dw in terms of wavelength. This optical property is called Dispersion. Prism is a dispersive element. The optical material is chosen with low absorption at operating spectral range.
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