Tutorial 5

1. Two mutually coherent beams having parallel electric fields are described by
1 1
3cos
5
E kl t
_
+

,
and
2 2
4cos
6
E kl t
_
+

,
with amplitudes in kV/m. The beams
interfere at a point P where the difference in phase due to path is
3

(the first beam having the

longer path). At the point of superposition, calculate: a) the resultant intensity
1 2 12
I I I I + +
;
b) the fringe visibility.
2. The net intensity of two coherent sources of equal strength is exactly twice the intensity due
to either source at a certain point in space. What is the phase difference between waves
arriving from the two sources at that point?
3. Two coherent light sources of the same wavelength, each with intensity of
3 2
o
1.0 10 W/m I interfere at a point at which the phase difference is 60
o
. What is the net
intensity at this point?
4. Light of wavelength 500 nm shines on two slits separated by 0.3 mm. Find the intensity
ratio
o
I I
at positions 0.6 mm and -0.5 mm from the central maximum on a screen 1m from
the slits.
5. A double-slit experiment produces fringes on a distant screen. How does the linear
separation between the bright maxima on the screen change when a) the wavelength of light
doubles? b) The separation between the slits doubles? c) The distance between the slits and
the screen doubles? d) The intensity of the light doubles?
6. In an interference experiment of the Young type the distance between slits is 0.5 mm and
the wavelength of the light is 600 nm. a) If it is desired to have a fringe spacing 1 mm at the
screen, what is the proper screen distance? b) If a thin plate of glass ( 1.5 n ) of thickness
100 m
is placed over one of the slits, what is the lateral fringe displacement at the screen?
7. In a double-slit experiment to determine an unknown wavelength of light, the measured
total distance between 16 maxima (8 on each side of the central maximum) is 16.8 cm. The
screen is located 3.45 m from the double slits, whose centers are 0.21 mm apart. What is the
wavelength?
8. In Youngs experiment, for what order
m
does the band of wavelength of red light (
780nm ) coincide with the ( ) 1 m+
-th order in the band of blue light ( = 520 nm)?
9. Each of the parallel sides of a glass plate reflects 25% of the intensity of the narrow
monochromatic light beam incident on it and transmits the remainder. Find the ratio of the
minimum and maximum intensities in the interference pattern formed by the two beams
1
I

and
2
I
. R: 1/49
10. A beam of parallel rays is incident at an angle of 30
o
with the normal on a plane parallel
film of thickness
5
4 10

cm and refractive index 1.50. Show that the reflected light whose
wavelength is 754.2 nm will reinforce.
11. A beam of waves of wavelength ranging from 350 to 580 nm is allowed to fall normally
on a thin air film of thickness 0.2945m. What is the colour shown in reflection by the film?
12. A parallel beam of light ( = 589 nm) is incident on a thin glass plate of refractive index
1.5 such that the angle of refraction in the plate is 60
o
. Calculate the smallest thickness of the
plate which will appear dark by reflection.
13. A thin
5
4 10

cm thick film of refractive index 1.5 is illuminated by white light normal to

its surface. Which colour will be intensified in the visible spectrum?
14. A beam of monochromatic light of wavelength 582 nm falls normally on a glass wedge
with the wedge angle of 20 s of an arc. If the refractive index of glass is 1.5, find the number
of interference fringes per centimeter of the wedge length.
15. Light of wavelength 600 nm falls normally on a thin wedge film of refractive index 1.4,
forming fringes that are 2mm apart. Find the angle of the wedge.
16. A filter is used to obtain approximately monochromatic light from a white source. If the
pass band of the filter is 10 nm, what is the coherence length and coherence time of the
filtered light? The mean wavelength is 600 nm.
17. What is the line width in hertz and in nanometers of the light from helium-neon laser
whose coherence length is 5 km? The wavelength is 633 nm.
18. Calculate the length of coherence for some typical light sources: a) white light (
550nm; =300nm
); b) green line of mercury lamp (
546nm; =0.025nm
); c)
orange line of Kr lamp (
606nm; =0.00047nm
); d)
2
CO
laser (
-5
10.6 m; =10 nm ).
19. Calculate the power spectrum of a damped wave train:
( )
( )
0 0
exp for 0
0 for 0
E at i t t
E t
t

'
<