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INTERFERENCE AND DIFFRACTION

The document discusses the dual nature of light, highlighting its wave and particle characteristics through historical theories and experiments. Key experiments include Thomas Young's Double Slit Experiment, which demonstrated light's wave nature through interference patterns, and the Photoelectric Effect, which provided evidence for its particle nature. The document also explains the principles of constructive and destructive interference, as well as diffraction phenomena.

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5 views20 pages

INTERFERENCE AND DIFFRACTION

The document discusses the dual nature of light, highlighting its wave and particle characteristics through historical theories and experiments. Key experiments include Thomas Young's Double Slit Experiment, which demonstrated light's wave nature through interference patterns, and the Photoelectric Effect, which provided evidence for its particle nature. The document also explains the principles of constructive and destructive interference, as well as diffraction phenomena.

Uploaded by

Jonalyn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Interference and Diffraction

Light’s Nature
• Wave nature (electromagnetic wave)

• Particle nature (bundles of energy called


photons)
Past- Separate Theories of Either
Wave or Particle Nature
• Corpuscular theory of Newton (1670)
• Light corpuscles have mass and travel at
extremely high speeds in straight lines

• Huygens (1680)
• Wavelets-each point on a wavefront acts
as a source for the next wavefront
Why was it difficult to prove the
wave part of the nature of light?
Proofs of Wave Nature
• Thomas Young's Double Slit Experiment (1807)
bright (constructive) and dark (destructive)
fringes seen on screen

• Thin Film Interference Patterns

• Poisson/Arago Spot (1820)

• Diffraction fringes seen within and around a


small obstacle or through a narrow opening
Proof of Particle Nature:
The Photoelectric Effect
• Albert Einstein 1905
• Light energy is quantized
• Photon is a quantum or packet of energy
The Photoelectric Effect
• Heinrich Hertz first observed the
photoelectric effect in 1887
• Einstein explained it in 1905 and won the
Nobel prize for this.
Thomas Young’s Double Slit
Interference Experiment
• Showed an interference
pattern
• Measured the
wavelength of the light
Two Waves Interfering
Young’s Double Slit
Interference Pattern
http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/USEM/SciImg/home_files/introduction_files/doubleslit.jpg
For Constructive
Interference:
The waves must arrive
to the point of study in
phase.
So their path difference
must be integral
multiples of the
wavelength:
DL= nl
n=0,1,2,3,………
For destructive interference:
, the waves must
arrive to the point of
study out of phase.
So the path difference
must be an odd
multiple of l/2:

DL= n l
m=1/2,3/2,5/2,….
Typical Question
• Where is the first location of constructive
or destructive interference?
Diffraction Grating
Diffraction
Wave bends as it passes an obstacle.
Diffraction through a Narrow Slit
Each part of the slit acts as a point source
that interferes with the others.
(Based on Huygens Principle)
Pattern of Diffraction of Light
through a Narrow Slit

x
w

L
Diffraction around a Penny and
Poison Spot
Example of Diffraction

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