Wavefront division and
Amplitude division interference
S2P - S1P = s2 - s1 = mλ --- Constructive interference
= (m+1/2)λ… Destructive interference
Intensity distribution
Bright fringe positions to be given by
Lets watch these animations
• Youngs double slit
• [Link]
Amplitude division
NEWOTON’S rings
Concept of antireflection and full reflection coatings
Soap bubble
[Link]
ubbles/[Link]
Air wedge interference
Measure of optical flatness
Michelson interferometer
Thickness measurement
Mach–Zehnder Interferometer
Measuring unknown thickness
Concept of antireflection coatings
• Mention on the measurement of temporal and spatial coherence
Diffraction
Contents
• Structural colors in nature
• Diffraction from single slit
• Diffraction from double slit
• Diffraction from rectangular slit
• Resolution of an optical instrument
Colors in nature
Why animals and plants have well defined colors?
Well-defined optical properties through efficient manipulation of light through
absorption, reflection, scattering, diffraction, interference, transmission (bulk
transparency), wave guiding, and lensing, and combinations of two or more of these
effects.
It is often difficult to tease out the various optical phenomena responsible for the
unique optical effects observed in natural materials
Have you seen structural colors?
STRUCTURAL COLOURS IN NATURE
Can we mimic these structures?
In nature…
Photonic crystals
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2015, 3, 6109
Applications: fundamental understanding, in optics, fabrication of smart surfaces,
biomedical applications ….
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Attempts to mimic nature… Applications
Natural inspirations Biomimetic adaptations
Adv. Materials Technologies, 2023, 8(6), 2201410
IIT Palakkad 6 07-12-2025
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Diffraction phenomena
• Diffraction effects are a consequence of the wave character of light.
• Even if the obstacle is not opaque but causes local variations in the amplitude or phase of the wavefront of
the transmitted light, such effects are observed.
• Tiny bubbles or imperfections in a glass lens, for example, produce undesirable diffraction patterns when
transmitting laser light.
• Diffraction is often distinguished from interference on this basis:
In diffraction phenomena, the interfering beams originate from a continuous distribution of sources;
In interference phenomena, the interfering beams originate from a discrete number of sources.
This is not, however, a fundamental physical distinction.
• Because the edges of optical images are blurred by diffraction, the phenomenon leads to a fundamental
limitation in instrument resolution --- Diffraction limit (Briefly mention about the resolution of optical
microscope)
Diffraction from a single slit
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• According to the Huygens-Fresnel principle, we can consider spherical wavelets to be emanating from each point
of the wavefront as it reaches the plane of the slit
• Then calculate the resultant field at P by adding the waves according to the principle of superposition.
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where represents the phase difference
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Irradiance is proportional to the square of the amplitude
Double slit diffraction
(Combination of Young's double slit and single slit diffraction effects)
Identify the terms!!!
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Single slit Double slit
Rectangular aperture
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Avenue to generate complex light patterns , spatial distribution, DOEs 39
Circular slit
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Condition for first minimum
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Resolution
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What is the condition to resolve the objects in the image plane?
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Resolved Unresolved
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