Energy Unit Conversions


As the field of plasmonics continues to become more interdisciplinary, it is essential to be able to convert between different units of energy by memory.  When reading papers, attending talks, having conversations with colleagues, and answering questions in your own presentations, you should always know exactly where a certain measurement lies in the electromagnetic spectrum, regardless of units.

For quick conversions, enter a value into any of the boxes below, and the remaining units will be calculated automatically.  Further below is a table that gives unit conversion factors and spectral ranges relevant to plasmonics.




   eV  nm  cm-1  THz

         Conversion Factors*  1 1240  8065.6  241.8 

         Ultraviolet (UV)  124 - 3.26  10 - 380  1000000 - 26300  30000 - 789 
         
         Visible (Vis)         
             Violet 3.26 - 2.85  380 - 435  26300 - 23000  789 - 689 
             Blue 2.85 - 2.48  435 - 500  23000 - 20000  689 - 600 
             Cyan 2.48 - 2.38  500 - 520  20000 - 19200  600 - 577 
             Green 2.38 - 2.19  520 - 565  19200 - 17700  577 - 531 
             Yellow 2.19 - 2.10  565 - 590  17700 - 17000  531 - 508 
             Orange 2.10 - 1.98  590 - 625  17000 - 16000  508 - 480 
             Red 1.98 - 1.65  625 - 750  16000 - 13300  480 - 400 
         
         Near Infrared (NIR)  1.65 - 0.496  750 - 2500  13300 - 4000  400 - 120 
         
         Mid-Infrared (MIR)  496 - 124 meV 2.5 - 10 µm  4000 - 1000  120 - 30 
         
 Far Infrared (FIR)  124 - 12.4 meV 10 - 100 µm  1000 - 100 30 - 3.0
         
         Terahertz Regime  41.4 - 1.24 meV  30 µm - 1 mm  334 - 10  10 - 0.3 


*Units are eV/eV, eV*nm, cm-1/eV, and THz/eV, respectively