Assignment -1 / Engineering Physics (OPTICS)
Last date of submission: 21.11.2023
Instructions:
i. All questions are compulsory. Handwritten answers are to be submitted. All the
assignment pages must contain the student’s name and registration number.
ii. Submission after the due date (21.11.2023) will not be accepted for grading. In
extreme cases, submission after the due date will be considered as “late
submission” and 40% marks will be deducted while grading.
iii. Your handwriting is not going to be assessed but it must be as clear as possible to
avoid any confusion during evaluation.
iv. Answers should be to the point and supplemented with proper diagrams wherever
necessary.
1. Suppose in the double-slit arrangement, d= 0.150 mm (distance between two slits),
L=120 cm (distance of the slit system from the screen), λ= 833nm, and y = 2.00cm (linear
distance of the point P from the center of the screen)
(a) What is the path difference δ for the rays from the two slits arriving at point P?
(b) Express this path difference in terms of λ.
(c) Does point P correspond to a maximum, a minimum, or an intermediate condition?
2. A thin film of acetone (n=1.25) is coating a thick glass plate (n=1.50). Plane light
waves of variable wavelengths are incident normal to the film. When one views the
reflected wave, it is noted that complete destructive interference occurs at 600nm and
constructive interference at 700 nm. Calculate the thickness of the acetone film.
3. In a Newton’s rings experiment, the radius of curvature R of the lens is 5.0 m and its
diameter is 20 mm a) How many rings are produced? b) How many rings would be
seen if the arrangement were immersed in water (n=1.33)? Assume that λ = 589 nm
Diffraction
4. A laser with a wavelength λ=632.8 nm is directed at a single slit of width a=0.05 mm.
The screen is placed at 2 m from the slit.
Calculate:
a) The angular width of the central maximum.
b) The angular position of the first minimum.
c) The width of the central maximum on the screen.
5. In a certain two-slit interference pattern, 10 bright fringes lie within the second side peak of
the diffraction envelope and diffraction minima coincide with two-slit interference maxima.
What is the ratio of the slit separation to the slit width?
6. A diffraction grating 20.0 mm wide has 6000 rulings. Light of wavelength 589 nm is incident
perpendicularly on the grating. What are the (a) largest, (b) second largest, and (c) third largest
values of θ at which maxima appear on a distant viewing screen?
Polarization:
7. In Fig. 1, initially unpolarized light is sent into a system of three polarizing sheets whose
polarizing directions make angles of θ1= 40°, θ2 = 20°, and θ3 = 40° with the direction of
the y-axis. What percentage of the light’s initial intensity is transmitted by the system?
(Hint: Be careful with the angles.)
Fig. 1
8. A beam of polarized light is sent into a system of two polarizing sheets. Relative to the
polarization direction of that incident light, the polarizing directions of the sheets are at
angles θ for the first sheet and 90° for the second sheet. If 0.10 of the incident intensity is
transmitted by the two sheets, what is θ?
9. In Fig. 2, a light ray in air is incident on a flat layer of material 2 that has an index of
refraction n2 1.5. Beneath material 2 is material 3 with an index of refraction n3. The ray is
incident on the air–material 2 interface at the Brewster angle for that interface. The ray of
light refracted into material 3 happens to be incident on the material 2 –material 3 interface
at the Brewster angle for that interface. What is the value of n3?
Fig.2
