Engineering optics Department of Physics

Assignment 2 Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

PH305 28/10/2023

1. One hundred antennas are putting identical waves, given by

E = 0.02 cos(✏ !t)V /m

The waves are brought together at a point. What is the amplitude of the resultant when
(a) all waves are in phase (coherent source) and
(b) the waves have random phase di↵erences?

2. Beginning with the relation between group velocity and phase velocity of the form
✓ ◆
dvp
vg = vp ,
d

(a) express the relation in terms of n and !, and

(b) determine whether the group velocity is greater or less than the phase velocity in a medium
having a normal dispersion.

3. The dispersion curve of glass can be represented approximately by Cauchy’s empirical equation,
n = A+B 2 . Find the phase and group velocities for light of wavelength 500 nm in a particular
glass for which A = 1.40 and B = 2.5 ⇥ 106 Å.

4. The dielectric constant K of a gas in related to the index of refraction by the relation K = n2 .
(a) Show that the group velocity for waves travelling in the gas may be expressed in terms of
the dielectric constant as

c ! dK
vg = p 1 .
K 2K d!

(b) An empirical relation giving the variation of K with frequency ! is


A
K =1+ 2
!0 ! 2

where A and !0 are constants for the gas. If the second term is very small compared to
the first, show that

!2A
vg ⇠ c 1 .
!02 ! 2

5. Two mutually coherent beams having parallel electric fields are described by
⇣ ⇡⌘
E1 = 3 cos ks1 !t + ,
⇣ 5⌘
⇡
E2 = 4 cos ks2 !t + .
6
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with amplitudes in k V/m. The beams interfere at a point P where the phase di↵erence due
to path is ⇡/3 (first beam having the longer path). At the point of superposition, calculate

(a) the irradiances I1 and I2 of the individual beams.

(b) the irradiance I12 due to their interference;
(c) the net irradiance;
(d) the fringe visibility.

6. Show that if one beam of a two-beam interference setup has an irradiance of N times that of
the other beam, the fringe visibility is given by
p
2 N
V = .
N +1

7. In a Young’s double slit experiment, monochromatic light from the narrow double slits 0.2 mm
apart interferes onto a screen 1.5 m away. The distance between the fifth minima on either side
of the zeroth-order maximum is measured to be 34.73 mm. Determine the wavelength of the
light.

8. 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 of 1 mm at the screen, what is the proper screen
distance?
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(b) If a thin plate of glass (n = 1.502) of thickness 100 microns is placed over one of the slits,
what is the lateral fringe displacement at the screen?
(c) What path di↵erence corresponds to a shift in the fringe pattern from a peak maximum
to the (same) peak half-maximum?

9. Sodium light (589.3 nm) from a narrow slit illuminates a Fresnel biprism made of glass of index
1.50. The biprism is twice as far from a screen on which fringes are observed as it is from the
slit.

The fringes are observed to be separated by 0.03 cm. What is the biprism angle A?

10. A thin film of M gF (n = 1.382) is deposited on glass so that it is anti-reflecting at a wavelength

of 580 nm under normal incidence. What wavelength is minimally reflected when the light is
incident instead at 45 ?

11. A non-reflecting, single layer of a lens coating is to be deposited on a lens of refractive index
n = 1.78. Determine the refractive index of a coating material and the thickness required to
produce zero reflection for light of wavelength 550 nm.

12. Newton’s rings are formed between a spherical lens surface and an optically transparent flat
surface in contact with each other. If the tenth bright ring of green light (546.1 nm) is 7.89
mm in diameter, what is the radius of curvature of the lens surface?

13. Newton’s rings are viewed both with the space between lens and optical flat surface empty and
filled with a liquid. Show that the ratio of the radii observed for a particular order fringe is
very nearly equal to the square root of the liquid’s refractive index.

14. A thin sheet of fluorite of index 1.434 is inserted normally into one beam of a Michelson
interferometer. Using light of wavelength 589 nm, the fringe pattern is found to shift by 35
fringes. What is the thickness of the sheet?

15. A Fabry-Perot interferometer just resolves two lines with = 0.1 Åat = 5000 Å. Find the
minimum separation between the reflecting surfaces with reflectivity 0.95.