Distributing rays in the spectrum allows for the rendering of dispersion effects, such as rainbows and prisms.
The additive nature of the dispersion effect has another useful consequence.
The first paper documenting dispersion effects seen through the microscope was written in 1872 by O. Maschke in Germany.
It wasn't until 1911 that the analytical potential of dispersion effects was reported by F. E. Wright.
The technical literature had little additional discussion of dispersion effects until 1948.
If the pulse has just the right shape, the Kerr effect will exactly cancel the dispersion effect, and the pulse's shape won't change over time: a soliton.
If the output from this process will be integrated with seismic data, the obtained elastic parameters must also be corrected for dispersion effects.
The processes used to decide the absolute structure use the anomalous dispersion effect.
However, atomic scattering factors have imaginary parts due to the anomalous dispersion effect, and Friedel's law is broken by this effect.
Light atoms usually show only a small anomalous dispersion effect.
