experiments >> intensity and determination of diffraction
Diffraction of light at a slit and edge
diffraction patterns of different slit sizes
A direct result of Huygens' wavelets is the property of diffraction, the capacity of sound/light waves to bend around corners and to spread out after passing through a small hole or slit.
The related terms for study are:
- Intensity
- Fresnel integrals
Huygens assumed that every point on a wave front may be regarded as a source of spherical wavelets the envelope of which is the position of the wave front at a later time. Huygens was thus able to account for rectilinear propagation and for the laws of reflection and refraction. Fresnel added the hypothesis that the wavelets can interfere, and this led to a theory of diffraction. Figure 14 shows how a coherent, monochromatic wave from a point source P falls on the screen S, which is opaque except for an aperture dS.
- Fraunhofer diffraction
in the figure is illustrated the arrangement for Fraunhofer (far-field) diffraction. The opening at S diffracts light from source P onto plane Q.
Experiments possible with this experimental setup are:
› Monochromatic light is incident on a slit or an edge. The intensity distribution of the diffraction pattern may be determined.
› Measurement of the width of a given slit
› Measurement of the intensity distribution of the diffraction pattern of the slit and
› Measurement of the intensity distribution of the diffraction pattern of the edge.
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experiments >> intensity and determination of diffraction
