Chapter 39

Matter-Waves Trap
What is Physics?
One of the long-standing goals of physics has been to understand the nature of atom.
The development of quantum mechanics provided a framework for understanding this
and many other mysteries. The basic premise of quantum mechanics is that moving
particles (electrons, protons, etc) are best viewed as matter waves whose motions
are governed by Schrödinger’s equation. Although this premise is also correct for
massive objects (baseballs, cars. Planets, etc.) where classical Newtonian
mechanics still predicts behavior correctly, it is more convenient to use classical
mechanics in that regime. However, when particle masses are small, quantum
mechanics provides the only framework for describing their motion.

Before applying quantum mechanics to the atomic structure, we will first explore
some simpler situations. Some of these oversimplified examples, which previously
were only seen in introductory textbooks, are now realized in real devices developed
by the rapidly growing field of nanotechnology.

39- 1
The Hubble Space
Telescope does its viewing
above the atmosphere and
does not suffer from the
atmospheric blurring,
caused by air turbulence,
that plagues ground-based
telescopes. Despite this
advantage, it does have
limitations due to
diffraction effects. In this
chapter we show how the
wave nature of light limits
the ability of any optical
system to distinguish
between closely spaced
objects. (©Denis
Scott/CORBIS)
 DIFFRACTION

•Diffraction
•Single-slit diffraction
we saw how light beams passing through different slits can interfere with
each other and how a beam after passing through a single slit flares-
diffracts- in Young's experiment. Diffraction through a single slit or past either
a narrow obstacle or an edge produces rich interference patterns. The
physics of diffraction plays an important role in many scientific and
engineering fields.

In this chapter we explain diffraction using the wave nature of light and
discuss several applications of diffraction in science and technology.

36-
27.5 Diffraction

Diffraction is the bending of waves around

obstacles or the edges of an opening.

Huygens’ principle

Every point on a wave front acts as a source

of tiny wavelets that move forward with the same
speed as the wave; the wave front at a latter
instant is the surface that is tangent to the
wavelets.
27.5 Diffraction

This top view shows five

sources of Huygens’ wavelets.
 Introduction to diffraction patterns

• Light of wavelength comparable or larger than the width

of slit spreads out in all direction upon passing the slit
• Phenomenon called diffraction
• Not only light spreads out, but diffraction pattern consists
of light and dark areas (like interference)
• Pattern consist of broad intense central band – central
maxima
• Flanked by series of narrower. Less intense additional
bands ( side maxima or secondary maxima)
• Plus series of intervening dark bands (minima)
27.5 Diffraction

The extent of the diffraction increases as the ratio of the wavelength

to the width of the opening increases.
The diffraction pattern that
appears on a screen when light
passes through a narrow
vertical slit. The pattern
consists of a broad central
fringe and a series of less
intense and narrower side
fringes.
27.5 Diffraction
 Diffraction and the Wave Theory of Light
Diffraction Pattern from a single narrow slit.
Side or secondary
maxima

Light

Central
maximum
These patterns cannot be
Fresnel Bright Spot. explained using geometrical
optics

Light

Bright
spot

36-
 For plane waves entering a single slit,
the waves emerging from the slit start
spreading out, diffracting.

Fig. 35-7
Light from a small source passes by the edge of an
opaque object and continues
Diffraction pattern
created by the
illumination of a
penny, with the penny
positioned midway
between screen and
light source. Note the
bright spot at the
center.
 Diffraction pattern from narrow slits
• Consider light passing thro’ a narrow opening, and projected onto a
screen
• Assume that screen is far from slit, rays reaching screen are approx
parallel

(a) Fraunhofer diffraction

pattern of a single slit. The
pattern consists of a central
bright fringe flanked by
much weaker maxima
alternating with dark fringes.
(Drawing not to scale.)
(b) Photograph of a single-slit
Fraunhofer diffraction pattern.
A bright fringe is observed along
the axis at θ = 0, with alternating
dark and bright fringes

(Note: If screen is brought close to the

slit, the pattern is a Fresnel diffraction
pattern. The Fresnel pattern is more
difficult to analyze, so discussion
restricted to Fraunhofer diffraction)
According to Huygens’s principle
each portion of the slit acts as a
source of light waves
Hence, light from one portion of the
slit can interfere with light from
another portion
Resulting light intensity depends on
the direction θ

Paths of light rays that encounter a

narrow slit of width a and diffract
toward a screen in the direction
described by angle θ. Each portion
of the slit acts as a point source of
light waves. The path difference
between rays 1 and 3, rays 2 and 4,
or rays 3 and 5 is (a/2) sin θ.
(Drawing not to scale.)
 Diffraction by a Single Slit: Locating the Minima

When the path length difference between rays r1 and r2 is

l/2, the two rays will be out of phase when they reach P1
on the screen, resulting in destructive interference at P1.
The path length difference is the distance from the
starting point of r2 at the center of the slit to point b.

For D>>a, the path length difference between rays r1 and

r2 is (a/2) sin q.

Fig. 36-4 36-18

If the path difference (between 1 and 3, 2 and 4) is exactly half a wavelength
( corresponding to phase difference of 180o) then the two waves cancel
each other out and destructive interference occurs.
Therefore waves from upper half of the slit interfere destructively with waves
from the lower half when…

a l
sin q   or when
2 2
l
sin q   , if divide slit into four equal parts
a
screen is also dark when
2l
sin q   , if divide into six equal parts
a
screen is dark when
3l
sin q   , therefore general condition for
a
destructiv e interferen ce is
l
sin q dark  m , m   1,2,3,....
a
 l
sin q dark  m , m   1,2,3,....
a
When dark fringe, zero intensity. General intensity distribution shown by figure
below

Intensity distribution for a

Fraunhofer diffraction
pattern from a single slit
of width a. The positions
of two minima on each
side of the central
maximum are labeled.
Each bright-fringe peak
lies approx halfway
between its bordering
dark-fringe minima. Note
that the central bright
maximum is twice as
wide as the secondary
maxima.
Intensity of single-slit diffraction patterns

Fraunhofer diffraction
pattern for a single slit.
The light intensity at a
distant screen is the
resultant of all the
incremental electric field
magnitudes from zones of
width ∆y.
The light intensity at this
point is proportional to
square of the magnitude
of the electric field
(a)A plot of light
intensity I versus β/2
for the single-slit
Fraunhofer
diffraction pattern.
(b)Photograph of a
single-slit Fraunhofer
diffraction pattern.
The combined effects of
two-slit and single-slit
interference. This is the
pattern produced when
650-nm light waves
pass through two 3.0-
mm slits that are 18 mm
apart. Notice how the
diffraction pattern acts
as an “envelope” and
controls the intensity of
the regularly spaced
interference maxima.
 Resolution of single-slit and circular apertures
• The ability of optical systems to distinguish between closely spaced
objects is limited because of the wave nature of light. Consider the
figure below:

Two point sources far from a narrow slit each produce a diffraction pattern.
(a) The angle subtended by the sources at the slit is large enough for the
diffraction patterns to be distinguishable and are said to be resolved.
Two point sources far from a narrow slit each produce a diffraction
pattern.
(b) The angle subtended by the sources is so small that their diffraction
patterns overlap, and the images are not well resolved. (Note that the
angles are greatly exaggerated. The drawing is not to scale.)
• To determine whether two images are resolved, the following
condition is often used:
• When the central maximum of one image falls on the first
minimum of another image, the images are said to be just
resolved. This limiting conditioning of resolution is known as
Rayleigh’s criterion
• Can determine minimum angular separation θmin subtended by
the sources at the slit for which images are just resolved
l
sin q 
a
since l  a, and sin q  q , therefore limiting angle of resolution
l
q min  , hence angle subtended by the two sources
a
must be greater th an l/a if the images are to be resolved
• Many optical systems use circular rather than slits

Individual diffraction
patterns of two
point sources (solid
curves) and the
resultant patterns
(dashed curves) for
various angular
separations of the
sources. In each
case, the dashed
curve is the sum of
the two solid
curves.
(a) The sources are far apart, and the patterns are well resolved.
(b) The sources are closer together such that the angular separation just
satisfies Rayleigh’s criterion, and the patterns are just resolved.
(c) The sources are so close together that the patterns are not resolved.
Analysis shows that the limiting angle of resolution of the circular
aperture is
θmin = 1.22(λ/D) where D is the diameter of the aperture
 Resolvability
Rayleigh’s Criterion: two point sources are barely resolvable if their angular separation
qR results in the central maximum of the diffraction pattern of one source’s image is
centered on the first minimum of the diffraction pattern of the other source’s image.

Fig. 36-10

 l  q R small
l
q R  sin 1.22   1.22
1
(Rayleigh's criterion)
 d d

36-29