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Doha Modern Indian School Grade 12 Physics: Wave Optics - Part 2

Fresnel distance is the minimum distance light can travel before its wave nature appears. Beyond this distance, light behaves as a wave rather than a ray. The interference pattern in a double-slit experiment is modulated by the diffraction of light through each slit. Polarization occurs when light vibrations are restricted to one direction perpendicular to the propagation direction. Polaroids can convert unpolarized light into polarized light by selectively absorbing electric field vectors of the light wave parallel to the aligned molecules in the polaroid material.

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64 views

Doha Modern Indian School Grade 12 Physics: Wave Optics - Part 2

Fresnel distance is the minimum distance light can travel before its wave nature appears. Beyond this distance, light behaves as a wave rather than a ray. The interference pattern in a double-slit experiment is modulated by the diffraction of light through each slit. Polarization occurs when light vibrations are restricted to one direction perpendicular to the propagation direction. Polaroids can convert unpolarized light into polarized light by selectively absorbing electric field vectors of the light wave parallel to the aligned molecules in the polaroid material.

Uploaded by

Mohammed Aadil
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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DOHA MODERN INDIAN SCHOOL

GRADE 12 PHYSICS
WAVE OPTICS – Part 2

Validity of Ray Optics ( Fresnel Distance)

The minimum distance a beam of light can travel before it gets deviated from
its straight line nature to wave nature is called Fresnel’s distance.

Consider an aperture of size ′𝑎′ wich is illuminated by a parallel beam of light of


wavelength 𝜆′
𝑎2
𝑍𝑓 =
𝜆
Beyond Fresnel distance, the ray nature changes to wave nature.

Note: In what way is diffraction from each slit related to the interference pattern in
a double-slit experiment?
• The interference pattern in double slit experiment is modulated by diffraction from
each slit. The double slit pattern is the result of the interference of the diffracted
wave from each slit.
Polarisation:

• The phenomenon of restricting the vibrations of electric field vector in a particular


direction perpendicular to the direction of light wave is known as polarisation of
light

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Since the intensity of light transmitted through the analyser changes by rotating the
pass axis of analyser with respect to polarizer, we can conclude that light is a transverse
wave.

Plane of vibration and Plane of Polarisation:

• The plane which contains the vibrations of


polarised light is known as the plane of
vibration.
• The plane which is perpendicular to the plane
of vibration and passing through the direction
of propagation of light is known as the plane of
polarisation
Representation of unpolarised and polarised light:

Law of Malus:

• It states that when a completely plane polarized light beam is incident on an


analyzer, the intensity of the emergent light varies as the square of the cosine of
the angle between the planes of transmission of the analyzer and the polarizer.
𝐼 ∝ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2 𝜃 (or) 𝐼 = 𝐼0 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2 𝜃
where, Io is the intensity of polarised light which is incident on analyser.
2
Proof:
Let E0 be the amplitude of polarised light transmitted through polariser.
We can resolve this in to two components
Eo cos θ parallel to the analyser axis
Eo sinθ perpendicular to analyser axis
The amplitude of light transmitted through
analyser = Eo cos θ
Intensity of light transmitted through
analyser I = K (Eo cos θ)2
I = Io cos2 θ
⟹ 𝐼 ∝ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2 𝜃

The following diagram represents the graph drawn between intensity of light transmitted
through analyser and the angle between pass axes of polariser and analyser.

Polarisation by Scattering:

When a beam of light passes through a medium, it gets scattered from the particles of
the medium, provided the size of the particles is of the order of wavelength of light.

3
The scattered light viewed in a direction perpendicular to the
direction of beam of light is found to be plane polarized.

Consider a beam of un polarized light propagating along the X-


axis. The vibrations are confined in the Y-Z plane. After being
scattered from the particle, the light scattered along the y –axis
has only vibrations, which are parallel to z- axis

and along the z-axis has the vibrations parallel to y- axis. Thus
the scattered light is plane polarized.

Polarisation By reflection:

 Unpolarised light can be polarised, either


partially or completely by reflection
 The amount of polarisation in the reflected
beam will depends on the angle of
incidence.
 At an angle of incidence known as
polarising angle (ip), the reflected light is
completely plane polarised with vibrations
perpendicular to the plane of paper.
 At polarising angle, the reflected and
refracted beams are mutually
perpendicular to each other.

Brewster’s Law:

Statement: The refractive index of a transparent medium is equal to the tangent of the
polarising angle

𝜇 = tan 𝑖𝑝

Proof: At polarising angle, the refracted and reflected beams are mutually
perpendicular to each other.

From the figure, rI + r = 900 ⟹ ip + r = 900 ⟹ r = 900 – i𝑝

By using Snell’s law


sin 𝑖𝑝 sin 𝑖𝑝 sin 𝑖𝑝
𝜇= = =
sin 𝑟 sin(90−𝑖𝑝 ) 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑖𝑝

𝝁 = tan 𝒊𝒑

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Polaroids and their applications:

A polaroid is a material which converts unpolarised light to polarised light.

A polaroid consists of long chain molecules aligned in a particular direction. The


electric vectors (associated with the propagating light wave) along the direction of the
aligned molecules get absorbed.

Thus, if an unpolarised light wave is incident on such a polaroid then the light wave will
get polarised with the electric vector oscillating along a direction perpendicular to the
aligned molecules; this direction is known as the pass-axis of the polaroid.

Uses of Polaroids:

1. Used in sun glasses and window panes to control the intensity of light.

2. Used to reduce head light glare of motor car being driven at night.

3. Used in Photographic cameras and 3D movie cameras

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