Interference

Sunlight, as the rainbow shows us, is a composite

of all the colors of the visible spectrum. Soup

bubbles and oil slicks can also show striking

colors, produced not by refraction but by

constructive and destructive interference of light.

Light as a waveHuygens’ principle All points to a wave front serve as point sources of spherical secondary wavelets ,After a time t, the new position of the wave front will be that of a surface tangent to these secondary wavelets .Figure shows The propagation of A plane wave in Free space ,as portrayed by Huygens’ principle .

The law of Refraction We use Huygens’ principle to derive the law of refraction .Figure shows three stages in the refraction of several wave fronts at a plane interface between air (medium 1)and glass (medium 2 ) The refraction of a plane wave At a plane surface as By portrayed by Huygens’Principle ,the wavelength in Glass is smaller than that in air For simplicity, the reflected wave is not shown.

Sample problem 1

In figure ,the two light waves have wavelength

555.0 nm before entering media 1 and 2 .Medium

1 is now just air ,and medium 2 is a transparent

plastic layer of index of refraction 1.600 and

thickness 2.567 µm . (a) What is the phase

difference of the emerging waves ,in

wavelengths ?

1n

2n

L

SOLUTION :From

With n1=1.000, n2=1.600. L=2.400µm. And

λ=550.0nm we have

= (Answer)

Which is equivalent to a phase difference of 0.8

wavelength .

)( 1212

12 nnLLnLn

NN

)( 1212 nnL

NN

8.2)00.1600.1(10500.5

10567.27

6

m

m

(b) If the rays of the waves were angled slightly

so that the waves reached the same point on a

distant viewing screen ,what type of interference

would the waves produce at point ?

SOLUTION :The effective phase difference of

0.8 wavelength is an intermediate situation ,but

closer to fully constructive interference (1.0) than

to fully destructive interference (0.5).

Young’s Experiment

1 In 1801 Thomas Young experimentally proved that light is a wave, contrary what most other scientists then thought. He did so by demonstrating that light under goes. interference

2 . Figure gives the basic

Arrangement of young’s

double-slit interference

Experiment. On the

viewing Screen C,point

Of the interference

maxima form visible bright rows-called bright

bands, bright fringes, or maxima. Dark regions-

called dark bands, dark fringes, or minima-result

from fully destructive interference and are visible

between adjacent pairs of bright fringes. The

pattern of bright and dark fringes on the screen is

called an interference pattern .

Figure is a

Photograph of the

interference pattern.

3 .To find what exactly

determines the locations

of the fringes in Young’s

double-slit interference

experiment, let us see the

figure. The path-length-

difference between

rays and can be

written as

where d is the separation

of the two slits

L

1r

2rsindL

(1) For a bright fringe, must be zero or an

integer number of wavelengths. It

is . (2) For a dark

fringe, must be an odd multiple of half a

wavelength. It is .(3)

Using above two equations, we can find the angle

to any fringe and thus locate that fringe; further,

we can use the values of m to label the fringes

L

,2,1,0sin mmd

L,2,1

2)12(sin mmdI

4 . We now wish to derive an expression for

the intensity of the fringes as a function

of .

(1) Let us assume that the electric field

components of the light waves arriving at point

P in the figure from the two slits are not in

phase and vary with time as

and

respectively.

tEE sin01 )sin

2sin(02

dtEE

I

(2) So we have ,

where .

(3) Thus the intensity is

)2

1sin()

2

1cos(2 021 kxEEEE

sin

2 d

20 )

2

1cos2( EI

2

1cos4 2

0I

Sample problem 2

What is the distance on screen C in the former

Figure a between adjacent maxima near the

center of the interference pattern ? The

wavelength λis 546nm, the slit separation d is

0.12 mm ,and the slit-screen separation D is 55

cm.

Figure

1r2r

d1s

2s b

)

P

y

CB )(a

D

Solution :we assume from the start the angle

θ in the Figure will be small enough to permit

us to use the approximations in

which θ is to be expressed in radian measure .

From the Figure we see that ,for some value of

m (a low value ,so that the corresponding

maximum is near the center of the pattern as

required ), From for

m=1,2,3…

tansin

D

ymtan md sin

For the same value of m,

If we equate these two expressions for θand

solve for ym, we find (40-14)

For the adjacent maximum we have

(40-15)

we find the fringe separation by

subtracting from Eq.40-15:

d

m sin

d

dmym

d

Dmym

)1(1

d

Dyyy mm

1

=

As long as d and θ in fig are small .the

separation of the interference fringes is

independent of m; that is ,the fringes are evenly

spaced.

mmmm

mm5.2105.2

1012.0

)1055)(10546( 33

29

Interference from Thin Films1 . The colors we see when sunlight illuminates a

soap bubble or an oil slick are caused by the

interference of light waves reflected from the front

and back surfaces of a thin transparent film. The

thickness of the soap

or oil film is typically the

order of magnitude of

the wavelength of the light

involved.

2 . Figure shows a thin transparent film of uniform

thickness L and index of refraction n 2 illuminated

by bright light of wavelength λ from a distant

point source. For now, we assume that air lies

on both sides of the film and thus that n 2=n 1 in

figure. For simplicity, we also assume that the

light rays are almost perpendicular to the film.

3 . Reflection phase shifts: Refraction at a

interface never cause a phase change .

but Reflection can depending on the indices of

refraction on two sides of the interface .

When an incident wave travels in the medium

Of Lesser index of refraction (with

greaterspeed ), the wave that is reflected the

interface , undergoes a phase shift of

πrad ,or half a wavelength .

4 . The optic path-length difference In the face

of thin film is :

5 . For a bright film , we have

6 . For dark film ,we have :

22

nL

.

,3,2,1,02

)12(2

2 mmnL

,3,2,12

2 mmnL

Sample problem 3

A glass lens is coated on one side with a thin film

of magnesium fluoride ( MgF2) to reduce

reflection from the lens surface (Fig 1) The index

of reflection of MgF2 is 1.38 ; that of the glass is

1.50 .what is the least coating thickness that

eliminates (via interference ) the reflection at the

middle of the visible spectrum (λ=550 nm) ?

Assume the light is approximately perpendicular

to the lens surface

Figure

SOLUTION :The reflection at point a still

Introduces a phase change of half a wavelength .

But now the reflection at point b does also .So the

reflections alone tend to put the waves of rays r1, ,

and r2 in phase .For them to be out of phase .

AirGlass2MgF

00.11 n

1r

2r38.12 n

50.13 n

( ab

i L

so as to eliminate the reflection from the lens ,

the path length difference 2L within the film must

be equal to an odd number of half-wavelength :

or with

We want the least thickness for the coating .that

is ,the smallest L and inserting the given data. We

obtain (Answer)

2)

2

1(2 nmL 2/

2nn

nmnm

nL 6.99

)38.1)(4(

550

4 2

Michelson’s Interferometer1 .An interferometer is a device

that can be used to

measure lengths or

changes in length with

great accuracy by means

of interference fringes.

2 .Figure shows

Michelson’s interferometer.

QuestionsHome work

Exercise and problems :

1E 2E

12P 16E

44E 72P

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