AIM:

To understand Young's double slit experiment and diffraction.

THEORY AND EXPERIMENT:

In modern physics, the double-slit experiment is a
demonstration that light and matter can display characteristics
of waves and particles. The experiment was first performed
with light by Thomas Young in 1801. In 1927, Davisson and
Germer demonstrated that electrons show the same behavior,
which was later extended to atoms and molecules.
Thomas Young's experiment with light was part of classical
physics well before quantum mechanics, and the concept of
wave-particle duality, He believed it demonstrated that the
wave theory of light was correct, and his experiment is
sometimes referred to as Young's experiment or Young's
slits.
The experiment belongs to a general class of "double path"
experiments, in which a wave is split into two separate
waves that later combine into a single wave. Changes in the
path lengths of both waves result in a phase shift, creating
an interference pattern. Another version is the Mach—
Zehnder interferometer, which splits the beam with a mirror.
In the basic version of this experiment, a coherent light
source, such as a laser beam, illuminates a plate pierced by
two parallel slits, and the light passing through the slits is
observed on a screen behind the plate. The wave nature of
light causes the light waves passing through the two slits to
interfere, producing bright and dar bands on the screen,
which would not be expected if light consisted of classical
particles. However, the light is always found to be absorbed
at the screen at discrete points, as individual particles.
Furthermore, versions of the experiment that include
detectors at the slits find that each detected photon passes
through one slit, and not through both slits, as characteristic
of a particle. However, such experiments demonstrate that
particles do not form the interference pattern if one detects
which slit they pass through. These results demonstrate the
principle of wave—particle duality.
Other atomic-scale entities, such as electrons, are found to
exhibit the same behavior when fired towards a double slit.
Additionally, the detection of individual discrete impacts is
observed to be inherently probabilistic, which is inexplicable
using classical mechanics.

DIFFRACTION:
Diffraction refers to various phenomena which occur when a
wave encounters an obstacle. In classical physics, the
diffraction phenomenon is described as the apparent
bending of waves around small obstacles and the spreading
out of waves past small openings similar effects occur when
light waves travel through a medium with a varying refractive
index or a sound wave through one with varying refractive
index or a sound wave through one with varying acoustic
impedance. Diffraction occurs with all waves including sound
waves, water waves and electromagnetic waves such as
visible light, x-ray and radio. As physical objects have wave
li e properties (at the atomic level), diffraction also occurs
with matter and can be studied according to the principles of
quantum mechanics.

In optics, the Fraunhofer diffraction equation, named after

Joseph von Fraunhofer, is used to model the diffraction of
waves when the diffraction pattern is viewed at a long
distance from the diffracting Object, and also when it is
viewed at the focal plane of an imaging lens. In
contrast, the diffraction pattern created near the
object, in the near field region, is given by the Fresnel
diffraction equation.
Square diffraction or rectangular aperture:
The form of the diffraction pattern given by a rectangular
aperture is shown in the figure below. There is a central
semi-rectangular pea , with a series of horizontal and
vertical fringes. The dimensions of the central band are
related to the dimensions of the slit by the same
relationship as for a single slit so that the larger dimension
in the diffracted image corresponds to the smaller
dimension in the slit. The spacing of the fringes is also
inversely proportional to the slit dimension.
If the illuminating beam does not illuminate the whole
length of the slit, the spacing of the vertical fringes is
determined by the dimensions of the illuminating beam.
Close examination of the double-slit diffraction pattern
below shows that there are very fine horizontal diffraction
fringes above and below the main spot, as well as the more
obvious horizontal fringes.
 REQUIREMENTS:
Point light source
Parallel slits
Screen
Meter scale

TABULATIONS AND CALCULATIONS:

S.no Distance of Distance Fringe width Wavelength of
screen in (m) between slits in m light in (nm)
in (m) d

1 3 0.002 0.001 666

2. 4 0.002 0.0014 700

3. 5 0.002 0.0017 680

Average value of wavelength of light used is (660+700+680)/3 =

680 nm.

The above value of wavelength can be calculated from fringe width

by the formula:

Wavelength-fringe width*d/D
RESULT: We see that light found out experimentally is
approximately equal to the wavelength of the laser radiation used.
Thus we can say that our result is in accordance with Young's
double slit experiment.