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Fundamentals of Physics - Lecture 14

Light exhibits dual properties, behaving as both a particle and a wave, with historical theories evolving from Newton's particle model to Maxwell's electromagnetic wave theory. Key phenomena such as the photoelectric effect and Compton effect led to Einstein's formulation of light quanta, or photons, which retain characteristics of both theories. The document also discusses light's behavior at boundaries, including reflection, refraction, and dispersion, as well as the conditions for observing interference and diffraction.

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15 views16 pages

Fundamentals of Physics - Lecture 14

Light exhibits dual properties, behaving as both a particle and a wave, with historical theories evolving from Newton's particle model to Maxwell's electromagnetic wave theory. Key phenomena such as the photoelectric effect and Compton effect led to Einstein's formulation of light quanta, or photons, which retain characteristics of both theories. The document also discusses light's behavior at boundaries, including reflection, refraction, and dispersion, as well as the conditions for observing interference and diffraction.

Uploaded by

naisenbergs0
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lecture 14.

Basic Properties of Light


 Light has a dual nature. In some experiments
it acts like a particle, while in others it acts
like a wave.
 Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, light was
modeled as a stream of particles emitted by a source and the
chief architect of the particle theory of light was Newton.
 In 1678 Dutch physicist and astronomer Christian Huygens
(1629–1695) showed that a wave theory of light could also
explain the laws of reflection and refraction.

 Particle:
- light reaches the Earth from the Sun through empty space.
- if light were a wave, it would bend around obstacles.
 Wave:
- - Diffraction
- - Interference
 In 1865 Maxwell predicted that light was a form of high-frequency
electromagnetic wave.
 He also predicted that these waves should have a speed of 3×108 m/s
 Although the classical theory of electricity and magnetism
explained most known properties of light, some subsequent
experiments couldn’t be explained by the assumption that
light was a wave.

 Effects:
- Photoelectric effect discovered by Hertz (clean metal surfaces
emit charges when exposed to ultraviolet light).
- Compton effect (scattering of a photon by a charged particle,
usually an electron. If it results in a decrease in energy of the
photon, it is called the Compton effect).
 In 1905, Einstein published a paper that formulated the theory of light
quanta (“particles”) and explained the photoelectric effect.
 Einstein concluded that light was composed of corpuscles, or
discontinuous quanta of energy.
 These corpuscles or quanta are now called photons.

 According to Einstein’s theory, the energy of a photon is proportional to


the frequency of the electromagnetic wave associated with it

 where h=6.63×10-34 J∙s is Planck’s constant.


 This theory retains some features of both the wave and particle theories
of light.
 In some experiments light acts as a wave, and
in others it acts as a particle.

is light a wave or a particle?

 The answer is:


neither and both: light has a number of physical
properties, some associated with waves and others
with particles.
 When light traveling in one medium encounters a boundary
leading into a second medium, the processes of reflection
and refraction can occur.
 When a light ray traveling in a transparent medium encounters a
boundary leading into a second medium, part of the incident ray is
reflected back into the first medium.

specular reflection diffuse reflection


 When a ray of light traveling through a transparent medium encounters a
boundary leading into another transparent medium, part of the ray enters
the second medium. The ray that enters the second medium is bent at the
boundary and is said to be refracted.
 The angle of refraction θ2 depends on the
properties of the two media and on the angle of
incidence, through the relationship

where v1 is the speed of light in medium 1 and


v2 is the speed of light in medium 2.
 When light passes from one transparent medium to another, it’s
refracted because the speed of light is different in the two media.
 The index of refraction, n, of a medium is defined as the ratio c/v :

 As light travels from one medium to another,


its frequency doesn’t change.

 Snell’s law of refraction

reduction in wavelength when light passes


from a vacuum into a transparent medium.
 Index of refraction in anything but vacuum depends on the wavelength of light.
 The dependence of the index of refraction on wavelength is called dispersion.
 Light of shorter wavelength, such as violet light
(λ=400 nm), refracts more than light of longer
wavelengths, such as red light (λ=650 nm) when
passing from air into a material.
 Because of dispersion, the different colors refract
through different angles of deviation.

Variations of index of refraction in the visible


spectrum with respect to vacuum wavelength
for three materials.
 Conditions facilitating the observation of interference:
1. The sources are coherent.
2. The waves have identical
wavelengths.
 Thomas Young first
demonstrated interference in
light waves from two sources
In 1801.

(a) A diagram of Young’s double-slit


experiment. The narrow slits act as
sources of waves. Slits S1 and S2
behave as coherent sources that
produce an interference pattern on
the viewing screen. (b) The fringe
pattern formed on the viewing
screen could look like this.
 Light bends from a straight - line
path and enters the region that
would otherwise be shadowed.
This spreading out of light from
its initial line of travel is called
diffraction.
 The diffraction pattern that
appears on a screen when light
passes through a narrow vertical
slit.
The diffraction pattern of a
penny placed midway between
the screen and the source.
Notice the bright spot at the
center.
 An ordinary beam of light consists of a large
number of electromagnetic waves emitted by
the atoms or molecules of the light source. The
vibrating charges associated with the atoms act
as tiny antennas. Each atom produces a wave
with its own orientation of E, corresponding to A schematic diagram
the direction of atomic vibration. of a polarized electromagnetic wave
propagating in the x - direction.
 Wave is said to be linearly polarized if the
resultant electric field E vibrates in the same
direction at all times at a particular point.

 The plane formed by E and the direction of


propagation is called the plane of polarization
of the wave.
 Thank you…

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