Interference Notes

December 5, 2012

These notes are not intended to be exhaustive. They provide the mathematical steps in the derivation of various interference and diraction results. Further details about the physics of interference can be found in your favorite introductory physics book. Interference is a phenomena that occurs when periodic functions with dierent phases are added. If two periodic functions with equal amplitudes are added, they will interfere destructively to produce a zero when their phase dierence is an odd integer multiple of , and they will interfere constructively to produce a maximum when their phase dierence is and even integer multiple of . This result is most easily seen in the complex representation of the periodic functions. Consider two functions E1 = E0 ei1 and E2 = E0 ei2 with the same amplitude E0 but dierent phases 1 and 2 . The sum of these functions is E = E1 + E2 = E0 (ei1 + ei2 ) = E0 ei1 (1 + ei ), (1) where = 2 1 . Thus, E = 0 when the phase dierence = (2m + 1) , where m is an integer and |E | = 2E0 when = 2m , where m is an integer: = (2m + 1) (destructive) = 2m, (constructive). (2)

2 when there is constructive interference. This is twice the Note that the intensity, I = |E |2 is 4E0 sum of the intensities of the individual functions. An alternative representation of this equation is useful. Dene = (1 + 2 )/2 = 2 1 . (3)

Then 2 = + /2; and E = E0 ei (ei/2 + ei/2 ) = 2E0 ei cos(/2). The physical eld is the real part of this: ReE = 2E0 cos cos(/2). (6) (5) 1 = (/2), (4)

This is just the equation we encountered in our study of beats. We will consider a number of examples in which periodic functions (waves) with dierent phases are added together with resultant constructive and destructive interference to produce maxima and minima (which could be zero) in intensities. 1

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Figure 1: Schematic of diraction from two very narrow slits.

Youngs Double Slit experiment

A screen with two narrow slits separated by a distance d is illuminated on the left with a plane with a propagation direction perpendicular to the plane of the slits. Since plane wave phases are constant on planes perpendicular to the direction of propagation, the phase of the wave has the same value at the two slits. Light passes through the slits and is observed on a screen far away. Each slit acts like a source radiating isotropically into a cylinder. The path length to a screen is dierent for the light originating at the two slits. Since the phase depends on path length, the two waves will have dierent phases, and the intensity resulting from the addition of the two waves will have interference maxima and minima. Consider a point P = (D, y ) on the observation screen a distance D from the plane of the slits as shown in Fig. 1. The distance from slit 1 to P is r1 and the distance from slit 2 to P is r2 . The electric eld from the two slits are then respectively E1 = E0 eik(r1 ct) E0 ei1 E2 = E0 eik(r2 ct) E0 ei2 , (7)

where k = 2/ with the wavelength of the disturbance. Thus = k (r2 r1 ) = (2/)r, (8)

where r = r2 r1 is the path length dierence. If D d, the light rays arriving at P from the two slits are approximately parallel, and the path length dierence for an observation point P at (D, y ) at an angle = tan1 (y/D) from the center of the two slits is r = d sin d y , D (9)

where the last result for holds for sin tan 1. There is destructive interference when = (2m + 1) = (2/)r and constructive interference when = 2m = (2/)r, i.e., 1 r = d sin = (m + ), (destructive) 2 r = d sin = m (constructive). (10)

The intensity of the disturbance measured at P is proportional to ) ( yd 2 2 2 2 (11) I = EE = 4E0 cos2 (/2) = 4E0 cos2 (k r/2) = 4E0 cos2 (d sin /) 4E0 cos2 D 2

P y a D 0 (a/N) sin a/N N-1 Blow up of slit

Figure 2: Schematic of diraction from a single slit. In the blow-up, the slit of width a is divided into N segments of length s = a/N . The centers of the segments are located at position sj = [j + (1/2)]y for j = 0, ..., N 1, and each is treated as a source of a spherical wave.
2 , and the minimum intensity at destrucThe maximum intensity at constructive interference is 4E0 tive interference is 0. In the small angle limit, the interval between maxima or minima of the intensity is D y sin = y = for 1. (12) D d D

Single-slit Diraction In the double-slit experiment just discussed, we assumed that the slits were so narrow that there was no path dierence in light rays emerging from them. If we consider slits of nite width, however, we have to worry about the fact that rays emanating from dierent parts of a slit have dierent path lengths. Consider a single slit of width a, and divide it up into N segments of equal width s = a/N . We begin by modeling the slit as N sources located at the centers of the segments (i.e., at positions sj = [j + (1/2)]s for j = 0, ...(N 1)), and we consider the case D a. This is the limit of Fraunhofer diraction. When D a, the Fresnel limit, one has to worry about interference of propagating in directions that are not parallel, and the pattern is more complicated. As the gure shows, the path dierence between light rays from neighboring sources reaching a detector P at angle is (a/N ) sin , and the phase dierence is = k (a/N ) sin . Let j be the the amplitude that reaches a point P directly in front of the slit ( = 0) be E0 . Let E amplitude from source j at position ja/N from the top of the slit. Since all the path lengths are the same when when = 0, We have E0 =
N 1 j =0

j = N E E

(13)

 = E0 /N . Now consider the amplitude received at P when is not zero. The phase of the and E disturbances arriving from the top of the slit is 0 = kr, where r is the distance from the top of the slit to P . The phase of the disturbances from the j th source is j = 0 + j . Thus E=
N 1 j =0

(E0 /N )ei[0 +j )] =

N 1 j =0

(E0 /N )ei[0 +j (ka sin /N )]

(14)

is the amplitude reaching P . We could do the above sum directly, but we are really interested in taking the continuum limit in which N . We therefore dene s = ja/N and 0 to be the phase at j = 0. Then s = (j/N )a since j = 1. Thus E = ei0 E0
N 1 j =0 N 1 j i(k sin (ja/N )) s i(k sin s ) e = ei0 E0 e . N a j =0

(15)

Now when we take the limit N , s 0, and the sum becomes an integral with lower limit 0 and upper limit N (a/N ) = a: ( ) a ( ) ds ik sin s 1 i0 ika sin i(0 +(ka/2) sin ) sin[(ka/2) sin ] E = E0 e = E0 e e 1 = E0 e a ika sin [(ka/2) sin ] 0 (16) and the intensity is )2 ( 2 sin[(ka/2) sin ] . (17) I () |E |2 = E0 [(ka/2) sin ] This function has a maximum at = 0 and zeroes at (ka/2) sin = m (m = 0), where m is an integer, or equivalently at a sin = m. (18) It has further maxima approximately midway between these minima. The intensity [Eq. (17)] from a single slit is shown in Fig. (3) Diraction and the Uncertainty Principle Diraction is really a manifestation of the uncertainty principle ky s 2 . Equation (17) says that the intensity I () is appreciable only for between the two rst two minima on either side of = 0, i.e, for (ka/2) sin between and . This denes a width for sin : sin 2/ka. The slit of width a constrains the beam width in the y -direction at x = 0 to be y = a. The bandwidth theorem says y ky 2 . The average value of ky is 0, but its width must be ky = k sin = 2/y = 2/a, where k = /c. This expression agrees with that derived form Eq. (17) as expected.

Diraction grating
A diraction grating has N narrowly spaced slits, which to a rst approximation we can take as being so narrow that diraction eects from individual slits are not important. The arithmetic for calculating the amplitude of a disturbance arriving at P is similar to that just done for diraction from a single slit. Let d be the separation between slits. (This would be d = a/N in the diraction calculation.) The phase dierence between adjacent slits is = kd sin , 4 (19)

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Figure 3: The function (sin(x)/x)2 plotted as a function of x/ . This function has its largest maximum at x = 0 and zeros at x/ = 1, 2, ....


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Figure 4: Schematic of diraction from a multislit grating

and the amplitude reaching P is E = E0 ei0 = E0 ei0

N 1 n=0

ein() = E0 ei0

N 1

eik(nd sin )

1 eiN /2 ) i0 = E e 0 1 ei ei/2 (ei/2 ei/2 ) ( ) sin N /2 = E0 ei(0 +(N 1)/2) . sin /2 eiN Thus I |E | =
2 2 E0

n=0 iN e /2 (eiN /2

(20)

sin N /2 sin /2

)2 . (21)

The intensity reaches a principal maximum whenever sin(/2) = 0, i.e., when /2 = m , where m is an integer. When this condition is satised, sin(N /2) = 0 as well. The value of I at these values of can be obtained by setting = 2m + 2 and taking the limit 0. Then (
0

lim

sin N /2 sin /2

)2 = lim
0

(1)mN sin N (1)m sin

)2 = lim (N )2 /2 = N 2 .
0

(22)

2 , i.e., N 2 times larger than the intensity Thus, the intensity at the principal maxima is Imax = N 2 E0 from a single slit. The intensity is zero whenever sin(N /2) = 0 and = 2m where m is an integer, i.e., when N /2 = p , where p is an integer not equal to an integer times N . The width of the central peak whose height is N 2 is the interval between = 2/N and = 2/N or

2d 4 2 4 sin = sin = . N N dN

(23)

Thus, the width decreases as 1/N , and thus the resolution, increases as as 1/N as N increases. There are N 1 zeros and N 2 subsidiary maxima between each principal maximum. The secondary maxima are near the points between minima where sin(N /2) reaches 1, i.e., at = p/N , where p is an odd integer. The fact that the maxima must lie between minima excludes p = 1, 2N 1, 2N + 1, ... For N large, the intensity of the rst subsidiary peak at p = 3 is 2 (1/ sin(3/2N ))2 (2/3 )2 E 2 = 0.045N 2 I I1 = E0 max . The intensity from a multislit grating is 0 shown in Fig. 5.

Double slit and grating with nite width slits

If slits have a nite width, light rays from dierent parts of the each slit will interfere to produce diraction patterns similar to that of a single slit. It is straightforward to generalize the technique developed for a single slit to calculate the intensity for diraction gratings with nite width slits. For two slits of width a separated with centers separated by a distance d, the intensity is ( I = 4I0 sin() )2 cos2 /2, (24)

where I0 is the intensity maximum that would result if there were only one slit and = ka sin /2 = a sin /. (25)

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Figure 5: Diraction pattern for a two-slit and a-5 slit diraction grating plotted as a function of x = /2 . This funciton has principal max at x = 0, 1, 2, .... Between each principal maximum there are N 1 zeros and N 2 secondary maxima as can be seen for the N = 5 case shown. The intensity from an N slit diraction grating of slits of width a separated by d is ( ) [ ] sin 2 sin(N /2) 2 I = I0 sin(/2) ) ( ) ( sin[(ka/2) sin ] 2 sin[N (kd/2) sin ] 2 = I0 (ka/2) sin sin[(kd/2) sin ] [ ]2 [ ] sin((a/d)/2) sin(N /2) 2 = I0 (a/d)/2 sin(/2)

(26)

The rst factor in this equation is the form factor of an individual slit, and the second is the structure factor of the array of slits. This structure involving a form factor multiplied by a structure factor is quite general. It applies in particular to scattering from solids and is critical to understanding X-ray scattering patterns. Thus, the nite width of the slits introduces a prefactor to the innitely narrow multislit pattern that is identical to the diraction pattern of a single slit as shown in Fig. 3. The single slit pattern causes the peaks of the multislit pattern to have vanishing amplitude at large angle. Figure 6 shows both the form factor and the structure factor for N = 5, a/d = 0.5, and Fig. 7 shows the full intensity. Figures 8 and 9 show the full intensity for N = 5 and a/d = 0.25 and a/d = 0.1, respectively.

X-ray diraction
Crystals consist of atoms (or groups of atoms) located on sites of a periodic lattice (such as a cubic lattice), which consists of periodic planes of attoms. These planes reect light (or waves). Reections from dierent planes add coherently to produce diraction patterns. This is called Bragg scattering. Figure 10 shows a schematic of rays refelected from dierent planes separated by a distance d. There is constructive interference when the dierence in path length of rays reected from neighboring planes is and integral multiple of the wavelength. The bright spots in 7

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20

15

10

4 2 2 4 2

Figure 6: This gure shows the form factor (multiplied by 25 to facilitate presentation) and the structure factor for a 5-slit diraction grating with width a of the slits equal to 0.5 times the distance d between the slits. The form factor vanishes at = (2m )(d/a) = 4m, whereas the structure factor has a periodically repeated structure with peaks of height scaling as N 2 = 25 at = 2m or sin = m(/d). Note the small oscillations in the structure factor between principal max.

N 5; a d
I 25

0.5

20

15

10

4 2 2 4 2

Figure 7: A plot of the full intensity of Eq. (26) for N = 5 and a/d = 0.5. It is the product of the form factor and structure factor shown in Fig. 6. The intensity falls to zero at the zeros of the structure factor ( = 4m ) as it must.

N 5; a d
25

0.25

20

15

10

10

10

Figure 8: A plot of Eq. (26) for N = 5 and a/d = 0.25. The zeros at in the structure factor now occur at = 8m.

N 5; a d
I 25

0.1

20

15

10

20 10 10 20 2

Figure 9: A plot of Eq. (26) for N = 5 and a/d = 0.01. The zeros at in the structure factor now occur at = 20m. Now the subsidiary string of peaks between = 20 and = 40 and others like it can clearly be seen.

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Figure 10: Schematic representation of Bragg scattering from crystal planes. Incoming radiation reects from adjacent planes and constructively interferes. The angle between the outgoing beam and the reected (or scattered) beam is 2.

Figure 11: This gures shows dierent planes that atoms in a periodic lattice can lie on. the diraction pattern produced by this interference is are called Bragg peaks. Thus the condition for constructive interference is 2d sin = m. (27) In a crystal, atoms line on may dierent planes as shown in Fig. 11. Thus, there will be Bragg reections at many angles. The maximum value that sin can have is 1 at = /2, which corresponds to backscattering (Fig. 10 shows that the angle between the reected ray and the incident ray is 2 rather than ). Thus, there can be no Bragg scattering unless < 2d. If the lattice spacing d is of order 1 Angstrom (108 cm), must be less than 2 Angstroms for reections to occur. This is the wavelength of x-rays. The smallest angle at which there will be Bragg scattering occurs from planes of atoms that have the maixmum separation dmax permitted in the lattice. (In a cubic lattice, dmax is simply the lattice spacing a.) There will be Bragg peaks at larger values of arising from planes with smaller spacing. X-ray scattering is our most powerful probe of the structure of matter. It is through x-ray scattering that we know the structure of silicon crystal, DNA, and proteins.

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