CH-10

WAVE OPTICS
LECT-01
 Today’s Goal

Huygen’s Wave
Theory-Wavefront
Newton’s Corpuscular Theory:-(1675)
➢ Every Light Source emits tiny
corpuscles(elastic, rigid &
massless particles of different
shapes & sizes).

➢Corpuscles travel in straight line

with different speed in different
medium.

➢Different colours of light have

different sizes of corpuscles.
The theory explained
1. Rectilinear Propagation of light
Newton’s Corpuscular theory

2. Reflection of Light

3. Refraction of light
It failed to explain
i. Interference
ii. Diffraction
iii. Polarisation

It wrongly predicted that light travels faster in

water or glass as compared to air.
Huygen’s Wave Theory-(1678)
1. Light is a Mechanical Wave (requires a medium)

Q) So, if light requires a medium, how does it travel

from Sun to Earth in vacuum?
Ans: Ether hypothesis → A very dilute & highly
elastic medium is spread anywhere in space
called ether. It is untouchable & undetectable.
2. It explained i)Rectilinear Propagation of Light
ii) Reflection iii)Refraction
iv) Interference v) Diffraction

3. It failed to explain Polarisation & Photo electric

effect
Huygen’s Principle
1) Wavefront:
Wave front is the locus of all points of the
medium which oscillate in same phase
Point Source:

The direction of wave propagation is always

perpendicular to wavefront
Source at ∞ or distant source

Linear Source
Secondary Wavelets:
1. Each point on a Wavefront acts as
a source of new disturbance
called secondary wavelets.

2. These wavelets are spherical and

travels with speed of wave.

3. The secondary wavelets spreads

in all direction.
Huygen’s Construction
A common tangent enveloping secondary
wavelets in the forward direction gives new
wavefront.
So what happens to wavelets travelling in
backward direction
Behaviour of Plane Wavefront on Reflection & Refraction
a) Refraction of plane wavefront by a
prism

b) Refraction of a plane wavefront by a

Convex lens
c) Refraction of a plane wavefront by concave lens

d) Reflection of plane wavefront by a Concave Mirror