Lecture 1
Lecture 1
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Course Information
Grading:
– Problem sets 20%
– Midterm 20%
– Oral Presentation 20%
– Final exam 40%
Problem sets:
– 1 per week
– Hand-out/Hand-in every Wednesday (begin
Sept. 11)
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Class Schedule
Week Dates Topic Key terms
1 Sept. 6 The Nature of light Wave-particle duality
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Class Schedule
Wee Dates Topic Key terms
k
8 Oct. 21 -26 Fraunhofer diffraction Single slits, multiple slits, rectangular
and circular apertures
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Nature of Light (Hecht 3.6)
Optics
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Nature of Light
Particle
– Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
– Optics
Wave
– Huygens (1629-1695)
– Treatise on Light (1678)
Wave-Particle Duality
– De Broglie (1924)
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Young, Fraunhofer and Fresnel
(1800s)
Light as waves!
Interference
– Thomas Young’s (1773-1829) double slit experiment
– see http://members.tripod.com/~vsg/interf.htm
Diffraction
– Fraunhofer (far-field diffraction)
– Augustin Fresnel (1788-1827) (near-field diffraction &
polarization)
Electromagnetic waves
– Maxwell (1831-1879)
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Max Planck’s Blackbody Radiation
(1900)
Light as particles
Blackbody – absorbs all wavelengths and
conversely emits all wavelengths
The observed spectral distribution of
radiation from a perfect blackbody did not
fit classical theory (Rayleigh-Jeans law)
ultraviolet catastrophe
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8
1x10 M = T
T = 6000 K
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8x10
Spectral Radiance Exitance
Rayleigh-Jeans law
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6x10
(W/m - m)
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4x10 radiation, T = 3K.
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2x10
T = 3000 K
0
0 2
Wavelength (m)
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Planck’s hypothesis (1900)
To explain this spectra, Planck assumed
light emitted/absorbed in discrete units of
energy (quanta),
E = n hf
Thus the light emitted by the blackbody is,
2hc 2
1
M ( ) hc
5 kT
e 1
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Photoelectric Effect (1905)
Light as particles
Einstein’s (1879-1955) explanation
– light as particles = photons
Electrons
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Luis de Broglie’s hypothesis (1924)
Wave and particle picture
Postulated that all particles have associated
with them a wavelength,
h
p
For any particle with rest mass mo, treated
relativistically,
2 2 2 2 4
E p c mo c
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Photons and de Broglie
For photons mo = 0
E = pc
Since also E = hf
h h h c
p E hf f
c c
But the relation c = ƒ is just what we expect for
a harmonic wave
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Wave-particle duality
All phenomena can be explained using
either the wave or particle picture
Usually, one or the other is most
convenient
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Propagation of light: Huygens’
Principle (Hecht 4.4.2)
E.g. a point source (stone dropped in
water)
Light is emitted in all directions – series of
crests and troughs
Rays – lines
perpendicular to
wave fronts
Wave front - Surface of
constant phase
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Terminology
Spherical waves – wave fronts are
spherical
Plane waves – wave fronts are planes
Rays – lines perpendicular to wave fronts
in the direction of propagation
x
Planes parallel to y-z plane
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Huygen’s principle
Every point on a wave front is a source of
secondary wavelets.
i.e. particles in a medium excited by
electric field (E) re-radiate in all directions
i.e. in vacuum, E, B fields associated with
wave act as sources of additional fields
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Huygens’ wave front construction
Construct the
New wavefront wave front tangent
to the wavelets
r = c Δt ≈ λ
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Plane wave propagation
New wave front is still
a plane as long as
dimensions of wave
front are >> λ
If not, edge effects
become important
Note: no such thing
as a perfect plane
wave, or collimated
beam
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