NATURE OF LIGHT

WAVE FRONTS

A line or segment in the path of an advancing waves

on which all the particles are in same phase is called
wave front.
Characteristics of wave fronts:
• It is a t right angles to the direction of travel of
waves.
• A Line normal to wave fronts, indicating the
direction of motion of waves is called a ray.
 TYPES OF WAVE FRONTS

Spherical Wave Fronts

Plane wave fronts
HUYGENS'S PRINCIPLE

This principle has two parts:

• Every point on a wave front can be
considered as a source of secondary
wave lets.
• The position of wave fronts after time
(t) can be found by drawing tangent
to the secondary wave lets.
 INTERFERENCE OF LIGHT

“When two waves from different coherent sources

meet together, the disturbance of energy due to
one wave is disturbed by the other is observed. This
modification in the distribution of light energy due
to superposition of two or more waves is called
interference.”
 TYPE OF INTERFERENCE

1. CONSTRUCTIVE INTERFERENCE

2. DESTRUCTIVE INTERFERENCE
 CONDITIONS FOR INTERFERENCE

1. The two sources of waves should be very narrow.

2. The two sources of waves should be very close to each other.
3. The amplitude of the two interfering waves should be perfectly
equal.
4. The two sources should emit continuous waves of same wave
length and same frequency i.e. sources should be phase
coherent.
 YOUNG'S DOUBLE SLIT EXPERIMENT

First experimental demonstration of optical interference was

provided by THOMAS YOUNG – 1805

EXPERIMENTAL ARRANGEMENT
1. A monochromatic light source
2. Two slits for secondary source.
THIN FILM INTERFERENCE
NEWTON’S RING
 DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT

DEFINITION
“The bending and spreading of light waves around sharp edges or corner
or through small openings is called Diffraction of Light.”

TYPES OF DIFFRACTION
Diffraction of light can be divided into two classes:
• Fraunhofer diffraction.
• Fresnel diffraction.
 FRAUNHOFER DIFFRACTION

In Fraunhofer diffraction,
1. Source and the screen are far away from
each other.
2. Incident wave fronts on the diffracting
obstacle are plane.
3. Diffracting obstacle give rise to wave
fronts which are also plane.
4. Plane diffracting wave fronts are
converged by means of a convex lens to
produce diffraction pattern.
 FRESNEL DIFFRACTION

In Fresnel diffraction,
1. Source and screen are not far away from each other.
2. Incident wave fronts are spherical.
3. Wave fronts leaving the obstacles are also spherical.
4. Convex lens is not needed to converge the spherical
wave fronts.
 DIFFRACTION
GRATING

Definition
“A diffraction grating is an optical device
consists of a glass or polished metal
surface over which thousands of fine,
equidistant, closely spaced parallel lines
are been ruled.”
DIFFRACTION OF X-RAYS THROUGH
CRYSTALS (BRAGG'S EQUATION)