PROBLEM SHEET 8

1. Light with a wavelength of 500 nm passes through a slit 0.2 mm (d) wide. A diffraction pattern
is produced on a screen placed 60 cm (L) away from the slit. Determine the distance between the
central maximum and the second minimum.

2. Light with a wavelength of λ = 587.5 mm illuminates a single slit which has a width of 0.750
mm.

(a) At what distance from the slit should a screen be located if the first minimum in the diffrac-
tion pattern is to be 0.850 mm away from the centre of the screen?

(b) What is the width of the central maximum?

3. A narrow single slit (in air) in an opaque screen is illuminated by infrared from a laser at 1152.2
nm and it is found that the centre of the tenth dark band in the Fraunhofer pattern lies at an angle
of 6.2◦ off the central axis. Please determine the width of the slit. At what angle will the tenth
minimum appear if the entire arrangement is immersed in water (n= 1.33) rather than air?

4. Show that for a double-slit Fraunhofer pattern if a = mb, the number of bright fringes (or parts
thereof) within the central diffraction maximum will be equal to 2m.

5. Starting with the irradiance expression for a finite slit, shrink the slit down to a minuscule area
element and show that it emits equally in all directions.

6. Imagine an opaque screen containing 30 randomly located circular holes. The light source is
such that every aperture is coherently illuminated by its own plane wave. Each wave in turn is
completely incoherent with respect to all the others. Describe the resulting far-field diffraction
pattern.
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SOLUTIONS

1. Gathering the data provided in the problem, we have:

FIG. 1: Schematics of diffraction from single slit

λ = 500 nm = 500 × 10−9 m = 5 × 10−7 m

d = 0.2 mm = 0.2 × 10−3 m = 2 × 10−4 m
L = 60 cm = 0.6 m
and we want to obtain the distance y of the secodn minimum from the central maximum, on the
screen placed at a distance L from the slit. The width of the slit is very small compared to the
distance between the slit and the screen, so that the angle (θ) is small and we can apply the small
angle approximation. Hence: sin θ ≈ tan θ ≈ θ. From Fig(1) we can see that tan θ = y/L and we
can use this in the equation for the minima of diffraction by a single slit:

d sin θ = nλ −→ d θ = nλ
y
tan θ ≈ θ =⇒ d = nλ
L
nLλ
yn =
d

In order for this to represent the position of the second minimum, we have to substitute n = 2,
obtaining:

2 × 0.6 × 5 × 10−7 m2
y2 = = 3 × 10−3 m = 3 mm
2 × 10−4 m

2. A schematic of the problem is reproduced in Fig.(2).

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FIG. 2: Schematics of diffraction from single slit

(a) The general condition for destructive interference is given by:

λ
sin θ = m with: m = ±1, ±2, ...
a

that can be simplified under the small angles approximation as:

y λ aym
= m =⇒ L =
L a mλ

The position of the first minimum corresponds to y1 , hence we can obtain L from the ex-
pression above simply using m = 1:

ay1 (7.5 × 10−4 )(8.50 × 10−4 )m2

L= = = 1.09 m
mλ 1 (587.5 × 10−9 ) m

(b) As we can see from Fig.(2), the width of the central maximum can be calculated simply as
the distance between the firs minima at both side of the centre:

w0 = y1 − y−1 = 2y1 = 2(0.850 × 10−3 ) m = 1.70 mm (1)

3. The width of the slit and the angular position of the minima are related by the formula:

b sin θm = mλ

Hence

mλ
b= = 1.07 × 10−4 m
sin θm
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When the slit is in water we have to consider λ/n instead of λ, therefore:

λ
b sin θm = m
n
So the angle will be given by:
mλ
sin θm = ⇒ θm = 4.7◦
nb

4. The optical path difference between the rays from the two slits is aθ. The condition for

constructive interference is

aθ = nλ

hence,
nλ nλ
θ= =
a mb
Mind that the intensity pattern produced by a double slit will be a 2-slits interference modulated
by a diffraction pattern. This is due to the interplay between the diffraction cause by each slit and
the interference between the light coming from them. The central diffraction maximum width can
be obtained as the distance between the first minimum in the right side and the same one in the
left side (m = ±1). The diffraction minima are given by
λ
θmin =
b
So we have
λ nλ
= ⇒n=m
b mb
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But the central diffraction maximum spans from −θmin to θmin so the number of fringes will be
2m.

5.
 2
sin β
I(θ) = I(0)
β
kb
where β = 2 sin θ We can now calculate the limit of I(θ) for b → 0. As b → 0 also β → 0 so

lim I(θ) = lim I(θ)

b→0 β→0

and

lim sinc(β) = 1
β→0

6. We will see an Airy pattern in the center