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Interference in Thin Film

imp notes about physics

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118 views25 pages

Interference in Thin Film

imp notes about physics

Uploaded by

ladkastudywala
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Module No -04

By
Asst. Prof. Rajesh Kumar Yadav
 Prerequisites : Wave front and Huygen's principle,
reflection and refraction, Interference by division of
wave front, Youngs double slit experiment
 Interference by division of amplitude,
 Interference in thin film of constant thickness due to
reflected and transmitted light;
 origin of colours in thin film;
 Wedge shaped film;
 Newton’s rings.
 Applications of interference –
 Determination of thickness of very thin wire or foil;
 determination of refractive index of liquid;
 wavelength of incident light;
 radius of curvature of lens;
 testing of surface flatness;
 Anti-reflecting films and Highly reflecting film
After Learning this chapter learner should be
able to
 Define Interference and its types
 Discuss interference in thin film and derive
path difference formula for transmitted and
reflected and reflected light
 Apply concept of interference to wedge
shaped thin film and Newton's Ring.
 Understand the applications of interference
 Understand anti-reflecting film
 Monochromatic  Coherent Source
Light  Coherent source of light
are those sources which emit a
 Monochromatic lights are single- light wave having the same
wavelength light, where mono
refers to single, and chroma frequency, wavelength and in
means colour. Visible light of a the same phase or they have a
narrow band of wavelengths is constant phase difference. A
classified as monochromatic coherent source forms
lights. It features a wavelength sustained interference patterns
within a short wavelength range. when superimposition of
These lights are distinguished by waves occur and the positions
their intensity or brightness, of maxima and minima are
colour, direction of propagation, fixed.
and state of polarisation.
A film of thickness from 0.5 to 10 μm is a transparent medium of glass, mica, air
enclosed between glass, soap film, etc. When the light is made incident on this thin film
partial reflection and partial refraction occur from the top surface of the film. The
refracted beam travels in the medium and again suffers partial reflection and partial
refraction at the bottom surface of the film. In this way several reflected and refracted
rays are produces by a single incident ray. As they moves are superimposed on each
other and produces interference pattern.
Consider a thin film of uniform thickness ‘t’ and refractive
index bounded between air. Let us consider monochromatic ray
AB is made incident on the film, at B part of ray is reflected (R1)
and a part is refracted along BC.At C The beam BC again suffer
partial reflection and partial refraction, the reflected beam CD
moves again suffer partial reflection and partial refraction at D.
The refracted beam R2 moves in air. These two reflected rays
R1 and R2 interfere to produce interference pattern.
Correction on account of phase change at reflection: when a beam is reflected from
a denser medium (ray R1 at B), a path change of λ/2 occur for the ray.

Therefore the true path difference is .


The wedge shaped film has a thin film of varying thickness, having thickness zero at one end
and increases at the other. The angle of wedge is θ .

The optical path difference


between the two reflected rays
R1 and R2 will be
Correction on account of phase
change at reflection: when a beam is
reflected from a denser medium (ray
R1 at B), a path change of λ /2 occur for
the ray.
Therefore the true path difference is
 NEWTON'S RINGS are the circular interference
pattern first discovered by Newton.
 Formation of fringes
 When a plano-convex lens with large radius of
curvature is placed on a plane glass plate such
that its curved surface faces the glass plate, a
wedge air film (of gradually increasing thickness)
is formed between the lens and the glass plate.
The thickness of the air film is zero at the point
of contact and gradually increases away from the
point of contact.
 If monochromatic light is allowed to fall normally on
the lens from a source 'S', then two reflected rays
R1 (reflected from upper surface of the film) and
R2 (reflected from lower surface of the air film)
interfere to produce circular interference pattern. This
interference pattern has concentric alternate bright and
dark rings around the point of contact.
The effective path difference between the two reflected rays
R1 and R2 for a wedge shaped film from equation

If the light is incident normally on the lens, r = 0 and near to point of contact θ is small;
therefore near point of contact

At point of contact t = 0 therefore the effective path difference ∆ = λ/2 which is odd
multiple of λ/2 Therefore the Central fringe is dark.
Condition of Maxima (Bright Fringe): The effective path
difference substituting this in equation

Condition for Minima (Dark Fringe): The effective path difference

From above eqn it is clear that


for particular dark or bright
fringe t should be constant.
Every fringe is the locus of
points having equal thickness.
Hence the fringes are circular
in shape.
To calculate the diameter of fringes, assume a plano-convex lens is
placed on a plane glass plate as shown in figure say R be the radius
of curvature of lens. In ΔO’ML
The diameter of dark ring is
proportional to square root of
natural numbers

The medium enclosed between


the lens and glass plate is if air
therefore, μ = 1. The diameter of
nth order dark fringe will be
The diameter of bright ring
is proportional to square
root of odd natural
numbers.
The medium enclosed between
the lens and glass plate is if air
therefore, μ = 1. The diameter
of nth order bright fringe will be
1.Determination of thickness of very thin
wire or foil
2.Determination of refractive index of
liquid
3.Wavelength of incident light
4.Radius of curvature of lens
5.Testing of surface flatness
6.Anti-reflecting films and Highly reflecting
film

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