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PHYSICS 2225 Lab 14 - Interference
PHYSICS 2225 Lab 14 - Interference
PHYSICS 2225 Lab 14 - Interference
Diffraction of waves is caused whenever a wave or waves encounters some obstacle in its (their) path.
You can easily get a sense of this by viewing the patterns produced on the surface of water when waves
encounter obstacles. The figure to the below shows large scale diffraction of waves on the surface of the
ocean as the waves encounter islets and barriers along the shore.
Diffraction is often described as the
self-interference of a wave as it
encounters a barrier. The patterns
produced are accentuated by regions
of constructive and destructive
interference. Where the amplitude of
the wave pattern is large, the
diffracted waves are constructively
interfering and where the amplitudes
are small or zero, the diffracted waves
are destructively interfering.
The phenomena of diffraction is
extremely common. We encounter it
not only in fluids, but it is an every
moment occurrence in normal hearing.
Much of what we hear comes to our
ears by way of diffracted waves.
Indeed, it is diffraction that allows
sound to bend around corners and go
through doors.
Diffraction is also an extremely useful phenomena in science. By making use of controlled diffraction,
physicists can make extremely sensitive distance and time measurements. X-ray and electron diffraction
is routinely used to work out the structure of materials, even for things as complex as proteins and DNA.
In this lab we will explore the use of simple diffracting systems to measure the wavelength of light and to
measure the width of small objects such as slits or even fine wires.
The idea of constructive interference is simple. The figure below illustrates the process for a double-slit
diffraction experiment. As the incoming wave encounters the barrier slits, two wavelets are created. Each
wavelet spreads out independently of the other. Any one point to the right of the barrier slits will
experience the arrival of wavelets from both slits. If the path difference between the two slits is equal to
one wavelength of the wave, or integer multiples of the wavelength, the waves will add together giving a
maximum amplitude at that point. In the figure, two paths are drawn to one such point. The paths are of
length L and L + . But the paths can also differ by any integer multiple of the wavelength n and still
give an interference maximum.
Using d as the slit spacing, (not p as in the figure) the formula for finding the angles at which
one can find constructive interference maxima is
d sinn = n
There will be n possible angles or positions at which you will find a constructive maximum. For
the examples in this lab, that corresponds to n possible laser spots on a screen. See, for example
the figure to the immediate right in which there is one central bright spot (n=0, = 0) surrounded
by the n =1 spot to the immediate top and the n=-1 spot to the bottom, then by the n= 2 and n=-2
spots, etc.
However there are just a finite number of n that will work, since -1<= sinn <=+1, so
-1<= nd
<=+1, or the maximum value of n that you can see is the nearest integer fit to
nmax < d/ .
Suppose for example that the slit with was d = 2 x 10-4 m and the wavelength was = 6.5 x 10-7 m, then
the maximum number of spots would be nmax = 307. In practice, the number of spots that you see is much
much less than this because the amplitude of each successive spot decreases with increasing n as can
easily be seen in the figure above.
= nd
end;
% Now lets make a fancy plot of it all
% 'surf' gives a surface plot of values
figure
surf(X,Y,potential);
title('Electric Potential')
xlabel('x'); ylabel('y');
% Lets make another fancy plot
% 'contour' gives lines of equipotential values
figure
N = 100;
contour(X,Y,potential,N);
% The ELECTRIC FIELD can be visualized as
% the quickest way down the potential surface
% are going to use the 'quiver' routine to
% visualize it. We will use the simple definition
% Ex = -Delta(potential)/Delta x and
% Ey = -Delta(potential)/Delta y
%Delta x and Delta y
dx = 2*0.01; dy = 2*0.01;
Ex = zeros(101,101) ; Ey = zeros(101,101);
%Notice how the indexing works
%Why do we go from 2 to 100, not 1 to 101
for i = 2:100
for j = 2:100
Ex(i,j) = -(potential(i+1,j)-potential(i-1,j))/dx;
Ey(i,j) = -(potential(i,j+1)-potential(i,j-1))/dy;
end;
end;
figure
quiver(X,Y,Ex,Ey,3);
title('Electric field vectors in x-y plane')
equal axes;
From Lab 3:
% This code can be used to visualize the
%Contour of a function
clear all; close all;
%Makes an array of 101 points from 0 to 1
%Do it again for the y points
x = 0:0.06:6;
y = -6:0.12:6;
[X,Y] = ndgrid(x,y);
%Makes a two-d grid for calculations
pdf = zeros(101,101);
beta=-0.6
%(x,y) points --- Don't forget the semicolons!
for i = 1:101
for j = 1:101
%Define the function you want plotted here:
s=(x(i)^2+y(j)^2)^(1/3);
pdf(i,j)=x(i)*exp(-s)*(1+beta*y(j));
end;
end;
figure
surf(X,Y,pdf);
title('pdf contours')
xlabel('x'); ylabel('y');
figure
N = 30;
contour(X,Y,pdf,N);