Young’s Double Slit Experiment

Purpose To examine the interference patterns formed by laser light passing through two slits
and to confirm the fringe separation on the screen.

Materials and Equipment

● Sparkvue on the iPad ● Metal Track
● Wireless Diffraction Scanner ● Red Diode Laser (650 nm)
● Diffraction Slits

Safety
Do NOT stare into the laser beam. This may result in permanent blindness!

L
Background
When light passes through two slits, the two light rays emerging
from the slits interfere with each other and produce interference
fringes. The angle to the maxima (bright fringes) in the interference
pattern is given by x

where d is the slit separation, θ is the angle from the center of the
pattern to the mth minimum, λ is the wavelength of the light, and m
is the order (0 for the central maximum, 1 for the first side
maximum, 2 for the second side maximum, and so forth). See Figure 1.
Since the angles are usually small, it can be assumed
that Figure : Interference fringes.

From trigonometry,
𝑥
𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜃 =
𝐿
where x is the distance on the screen from the center of the
pattern to the mth maximum and L is the distance from the
slit to the screen as shown in Figure 1. The interference
equation can thus be solved for the slit width
𝑚𝜆𝐿
𝑑= Figure : Single slit diffraction envelope.
𝑥
While the interference fringes are created by the interference of the light coming from the two slits,
there is also a diffraction effect occurring at each slit due to single slit diffraction. This causes the
envelope as seen in Figure 2.
Procedure

1. The track should be set up already and look like Figure 3. However, if it is not or it has
been tampered with, ask your teacher to help you with the setup.
Diffraction Scanner/
Light Sensor

Red Diode
Laser Diffraction Slits

Figure 3: Experiment setup.

2. Measure the position of the Diffraction Slits.

Refer to Figure 4 for the proper measurement.

3. Subtract 1 cm from this measurement.

position of the diffraction slits

Figure 4: Where to read the position of the diffraction slits.

4. Measure the position of the Diffraction

Scanner/Light Sensor. Refer to Figure 5
for the proper measurement.

position of the diffraction

scanner/light sensor
-
Figure 5: Where to read the position of the diffraction
scanner/light sensor.
5. Select any double slit separation by rotating
the slit disk until the slit is centered in the
slit holder. The slit separations are in the
Table to the right.

6. Turn on the Red Diode Laser (650 nm) and

adjust the position of the laser beam until it
is centered on the slit. Use the vertical and
horizontal adjustment at the back of the red
diode laser to center your laser beam. You
should see a red diffraction pattern on the
white part of the Diffraction Scanner.

7. On the back of the Diffraction Scanner, set the aperture width to 0.3 and turn on the
Diffraction Scanner.
8. Open the Sparkvue App on the iPad and connect the Diffraction Scanner to the Sparkvue
App via Bluetooth by matching the Bluetooth number on the Diffraction Scanner.

9. Set up a graph and table of Light Intensity vs Position on Sparkvue.

10. Turn the Diffraction Scanner crank until the scanner head is at the far-left position.

11. Start recording data then slowly turn the crank until the scanner head is at the far-right
position. Stop recording data when finished.
NOTE: If the light intensity caps off at 100%, decrease the Diffraction Scanner aperture width.

12. With the graph to guide you, find the position for each bright fringe at its maxima from the
table. Record the position of each bright fringe and the intensity of light for that position at
its maxima.

13. Calculate the x between each bright fringe and calculate the average x.

14. Calculate the percentage error for x. This must be within 4%, otherwise, redo the lab until
you get within this range.

15. Try the other double slit separations to find the best results in finding the most precise
values for x.

16. Turn off the Diffraction Scanner and the Red Diode Laser.
Young’s Double Slit Experiment /10 Name:

Prelab Questions:

1. Which formula is being used in this experiment? /1 mark

2. For each variable in the formula in this experiment, describe how you are measuring it. If a
variable is given, write down that value. /4 marks

Lab Observations:

Position of the Position of the Slit separation/ Wavelength of the

Diffraction Slits Diffraction Scanner? spacing Red Diode Laser

3. Why do you need to subtract 1 cm from the position of the diffraction slits? See step 3 in
the procedure and look closely at the device how it is setup in the experiment. /1 mark

4. Calculate the predicted value for x. This will be the distance between each bright
fringe/maxima. /1 mark
5. Write your best results in the Table below.

Slit Spacing/Separation used: _______________mm_

Position of the Intensity of x between each

maxima (mm) Light (%) maxima (mm)

6. What is the position of the central maximum? How do you know this? /1 mark

7. Calculate the average value for x. /1 mark

8. Calculate the percentage error for x. You must be within 4%. Otherwise, you must redo the
lab. /1 mark

|𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 −𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑|
% 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = 𝑥100%
𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑