The Wave Nature of Light

1
The Wave Nature of Light
2
Waves vs Particles
3
Huygens Principle
Every point on a wave front can be considered as
a source of tiny wavelets that spread out in the
forward direction at the speed of the wave
itself. The new wave front is the envelope of all
wavelets the tangent to all of them.
4
(No Transcript)
5
The bending of waves behind the obstacles into
the shadow region is known as diffraction.
6
Huygens Principle and the Law of Refraction
7
Important When a light wave travels from one
medium to another, its frequency does not change,
but its wavelength does.
8
Interference Youngs Double Slit Experiment
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
Constructive Interference
Destructive Interference
12
Line Spacing for Double-Slit Interference
13
Conceptual Example Changing the Wavelength

1. What happens to the interference patter if the
   incident light (500 nm) is replaced by light of
   wavelength 700 nm?
2. What happens instead if the slits are moved
   farther apart?