INTERFERENCE,
DIFFRACTION,POLARIZATION, RAMAN
SANDEEP KUMAR
Interference
• Interference is a phenomenon in which two waves
superimpose to form a resultant wave of greater or lesser
amplitude. Its effects can be observed in all types of waves
(for example, light, acoustic waves and water waves).
• If a crest of one wave meets a crest of another wave of the
same frequency at the same point, then the magnitude of the
displacement is the sum of the individual magnitudes. This
is constructive interference and occurs when the phase
difference between the waves is a multiple of 2π.
• Destructive interference occurs when
the crest of one wave meets a trough of
another wave. In this case, the
magnitude of the displacements is equal
to the difference in the individual
magnitudes, and occurs when this
difference is an odd
• Examples of constructive and
destructive interference are shown in. If
the difference between the phases is
intermediate between these two
extremes, then the magnitude of the
displacement of the summed waves lies
between the minimum and maximum
values.
Wave Interference: Examples of constructive (left) and
destructive (right) wave interference
• Diffraction is the spreading out of waves as they pass
through an aperture or around objects. It occurs
when the size of the aperture or obstacle is of the
same order of magnitude as the wavelength of the
incident wave. For very small aperture sizes, the vast
majority of the wave is blocked. For large apertures
the wave passes by or through the obstacle without
any significant diffraction.
Diffraction • In an aperture with width smaller than the
wavelength, the wave transmitted through the
aperture spreads all the way round and behaves like
a point source of waves.
• We classically think of light as always
traveling in straight lines, but when light
waves pass near a barrier they tend to
bend around that barrier and become
spread out. The definition of diffraction is
the spreading of waves as they pass
through or around an obstacle. More
specifically when applied to light,
diffraction of light occurs when a light
wave passes by a corner or through an
opening or slit that is physically the
approximate size of, or even smaller than
that light’s wavelength.
• Light is the interaction of electric and
magnetic fields travelling through space.
The electric and magnetic vibrations of
a light wave occur perpendicularly to
each other.
• The electric field moves in one direction
and the magnetic field in another
Polarization ‘perpendicular to each other. So, we
have one plane occupied by an electric
field, another plane of the magnetic
field perpendicular to it, and the
direction of travel is perpendicular to
both.
Light and Polarization
Light can be represented as a
transverse electromagnetic wave made
up of mutually perpendicular,
fluctuating electric and magnetic fields
Traditionally, only the electric field
vector is dealt with because the
magnetic field component is essentially
the same.
Light emanating from some source,
sun, or a light bulb, vibrates in all
directions at right angles to the
direction of propagation and is
unpolarized. Even monochromatic
light has vibrations in all planes
perpendicular to the direction of
propagation.
Polarizer cuts all of the vibrations in
all the direction except one
• Light is called unpolarized if the direction of this electric field fluctuates
randomly in time. Many common light sources such as sunlight, halogen
lighting, LED spotlights, and incandescent bulbs produce unpolarized
light. If the direction of the electric field of light is well defined, it is
called polarized light.
• The process of transforming unpolarized light into polarized light is
known as polarization. The devices like the polarizers you see are used
for the polarization of light.
• Depending on how the electric field is oriented, we classify polarized light into three
types of polarizations:
• Linear polarization: the electric field of light is confined to a single plane along the
direction of propagation (Figure 1).
• Circular polarization: the electric field of the light consists of two linear components
that are perpendicular to each other, equal in amplitude, but have a phase difference of
π/2. The resulting electric field rotates in a circle around the direction of propagation
and, depending on the rotation direction, is called left- or right-hand circularly
polarized light (Figure 2).
• Elliptical polarization: the electric field of light describes an ellipse. This results from
the combination of two linear components with different amplitudes and/or a phase
difference that is not π/2. This is the most general description of polarized light, and
circular and linear polarized light can be viewed as special cases of elliptically polarized
light (Figure 3).
• Figure 2: The electric field of linearly
polarized light (left) consists of two
perpendicular, equal in amplitude, linear
components that have no phase difference.
The resultant electric field wave
propagates along the y = x plane. The
electric field of circularly polarized light
(right) consists of two perpendicular, equal
in amplitude, linear components that have
a phase difference of π/2 or 90°. The
resultant electric field wave propagates
circularly.
• Figure 3: The circular
electric field (upper) has
two components which are
of equal amplitude and
have a π/2 or 90° phase
difference. If the two
components however, have
differing amplitudes, or if
there is a phase difference
other than π/2, then then
they will create elliptically
polarized light (lower).
• The same phenomenon can be seen in
the Figure. In the left image (without
polarizer), unpolarized light from the
sun is interacting with the windows of
the Edmund Optics building and most
of this light is reflecting off the
windows. In the right image, a
polarizing filter has been applied
such that the reflected light, rich in
one polarization type, is being
blocked from the camera sensor and
the photographer, using the other
polarization type, can see into the
building more easily.
Figure: A polarizer is placed in front of the
lens of a DSLR camera, reducing the glare
coming from the partially reflective surface
of the leaves on the vegetation.
Michelson–Morley
Interferometer
Use of
Interferometer in IR spectroscopy
Most interferometers employ a beamsplitter which takes the
incoming infrared beam and divides it into two optical beams.
One beam reflects off of a flat mirror which is fixed in place.
The other beam reflects off of a flat mirror which is on a
mechanism which allows this mirror to move a very
short distance (typically a few millimeters) away from
the beamsplitter. The two beams reflect off of their
respective mirrors and are recombined when they meet
back at the beamsplitter. Because the path that one beam
travels is a fixed length and the other is constantly
changing as its mirror moves, the signal which exits
the interferometer is the result of these two beams “interfering”
with each other. The resulting signal is called an interferogram
which has the unique property that every data point (a function
of the moving mirror position) which makes up the signal has
information about every signal which comes from the source.
Raman Scattering
• The Raman effect involves scattering of light by molecules of gases, liquids,
or solids. The Raman effect consists of the appearance of extra spectral lines
near the wavelength of the incident light. The Raman lines in the scattered
light are weaker than the light at the original wavelength. The Raman-
shifted lines occur both at longer and shorter wavelengths than the original
light; the lines at the shorter wavelengths are usually very weak.
• The difference between the incident photon and the scattered photon is
known as the Raman shift.
• The Raman spectrum is characteristic of the scattering molecule. The
Raman lines occur at frequencies v ± vk, where v is the original frequency
and vk are the frequencies corresponding to quanta of molecular
vibrations or rotations.
• If the scattered frequency is lower than the original frequency (longer
wavelength), the incident light has excited a molecular vibration or
rotation and the optical photon has decreased energy. This situation is
called Stokes scattering.
• If the frequency of the scattered light is higher than the incident light
(shorter wavelength), the light has gained energy from the vibrational or
rotational quanta. This is called anti-Stokes scattering.
• Because the values of vk are characteristic of individual molecules,
investigation of the Raman spectrum provides a sensitive analytical tool.
• Schematic illustration of a
Raman scattering
spectrum. The separation
between the different
lines is equal to the
frequency of a molecular
vibration.
Raman Spectroscopy
A) Introduction
1.) Raman spectroscopy: complementary to IR spectroscopy.
- radiation at a certain frequency is scattered by the molecule
with shifts in the wavelength of the incident beam.
- observed frequency shifts are related to vibrational changes in the
molecule à associated with IR absorbance.
- Raman Scattering Spectrum Resembles IR absorbance spectrum
- Raman & IR mechanism differ
a) comparison of Raman & IR:
IR Raman
i. vibrational modes vibrational modes
ii. change in dipole change in polarizability
extend compress
d- 2d+ d-
iii. excitation of molecule to momentary distortion of the
excited vibrational state electrons distributed around the bond
iv. asymmetric vibrations (active) symmetric vibrations (active)
2). Basic Principals of Raman Spectroscopy:
- light is scattered by the sample at various angles by momentary
absorption to virtual state and reemission
No change in
electronic states
Infinite number
of virtual states
energy absorbed by molecule
from photon of light
not quantized
• Raman amplification: this is based on the Raman
scattering where the lower frequency photons are
pumped to a high-frequency regime with a surplus
amount of energy. This method is applicable to
telecommunications.
• Supercontinuum generation: In optics,
supercontinuum is formed using the Raman spectra,
Applications which results in smooth spectra as the initial spectra
of Raman are built spontaneously which is later amplified to
higher energy.
Effect • Raman spectroscopy works on the basis of Raman
effect and finds applications in various fields like in
nanotechnology to understand the structure of
nanowires, in biology and medicine where the low-
frequency DNAs and proteins are studied and
chemistry to understand the structure of molecules
and their bonds.
• Raman scattering is used in remote sensing and
planetary exploration.