What is the material that transmits light?

Answer 1

Material transmitting light (that is electromagnetic waves in the visible frequency range) are called transparent.

When light interact with a material, light photons can be

transmitted, that is traverse the material without changing their direction and wavelength,

absorbed, that is transfer their energy to the material in form of heat, electrical current sometimes, or other forms of energy

scattered, that is traverse the material by being absorbed and emitted again, so that they emerge in a different direction from the incoming direction; a particular type of scattering is reflection, where the photon is scattered back by the material surface;

generate luminescence, that is being absorbed with emission of a new photon at a longer wavelength (of a different color) with respect to the absorbed one. This happens because part of the incoming photon energy is dissipated, generally in heat, by the material.

In transparent materials the great majority of incoming photons are transmitted. They differ from translucid material, where the light also exits from the material, but the photons are mainly scattered. In the first case a figure can be seen clearly through the transparent material, in the second case, light is perceived exiting from the material, but a figure on the other side is seen not clearly or it is not seen completely.

Answer 2

Dear Wiki Questioner,

Light does not actually require a material to be transmitted! It is one of the oddest (and most important!) facts of physics. Unlike sound or heat (which are propagated by particles bumping into their neighbors... who bump into their neighbors... and so on), light is created when an electric field creates a nearby magnetic field, which in turn creates a new nearby electric field (that is why light is often called electromagnetic radiation). You can think of light as two forms of energy playing leapfrog, instead of a long chain of matter passing a letter from hand to hand.

Electric fields and magnetic fields do not need any material to create each other, they tend to do it naturally. This is why light from the sun can travel through the empty vacuum of space between the sun and the earth to reach us!

Answer 3

Transparent materials fully transmit light, translucent materials partially transmit light and opaque materials do NOT transmit light.

Answer 4

Aerogel is the most prominent I believe. Its crazy expensive

Answer 5

Transparent ones

Answer 6

They are called translucent materials

Answer 7

Glass?