Vidyamandir Classes: Innovating For Your Success

 Huygen's Wave Theory

 Each point source of light is a centre of disturbance from which waves spread in all
directions. The locus of all the particles of the medium vibrating in the same phase at a
given instant is called a wavefront.
 Each point on a wave front is a
source of new disturbance, called
secondary wavelets. These wavelets
are spherical and travel with speed
of light in that medium.
 The forward envelope of the
secondary wavelets at any instant
gives the new wavefront.
 The wave front is always
perpendicular to the direction of
wave propagation.
 Coherent Sources
 Two sources will be coherent if and only if they produce waves of same frequency
(and hence wavelength) and have a constant initial phase difference.
 Interference: YDSE
 Resultant intensity for coherent sources
I  I1  I 2  2 I1 I 2 cos 0

 Resultant intensity for incoherent sources I  I1  I 2

2
 Intensity  width of slit   amplitude 

I1 A12
 
I 2 A22
2 2
I max ( I1  I 2 )  A  A2 
  2
 1 
I min ( I1  I 2 )  A1  A2 
nD
 Distance of nth bright fringe xn 
d
 Path difference  n where n  0,1, 2,3,....

 Distance of mth dark fringe xm 

 2m  1 D
2d

 Path difference   2m  1 where m  0,1, 2,3,....
2

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 Vidyamandir Classes: Innovating For Your Success
D
 Fringe width  
d
 
 Angular fringe width  
D d
 Shifting of Fringes due to introduction of glass slab
 Path difference produced by a slab x     1 t

 D
 Fringe shift, x     1 t     1 t
 d
 Thin Film Interference
 For reflected Light :

Maxima  2t cos r  (2n  1)
2
Minima  2t cos r  n
 For transmitted light
Maxima  2t cos r  n

Minima  2t cos r  (2n  1)
2
(t = thickness of film,   R.I . of the film)
 Lloyd's Mirror

 The position of dark and bright fringes are reversed relative to the pattern of two real
sources because there is a 180 phase change produced by reflection.
 Fresnel’s Biprism

 Separation between coherent sources d  2a  2aA   1

 Separation between slit plane and screen D  a  b

D   a  b
 Fringe width on screen   
d 2aA    1

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 Vidyamandir Classes: Innovating For Your Success
 Polarisation Of Light
If the vibrations of a wave are present in just one direction in a plane perpendicular to the
direction of propagation, the wave is said to be polarised or plane polarised. The
phenomenon of restricting the oscillations of a wave to just one direction in the transverse
plane is called polarisation of waves.

 Malus Law

 The intensity of transmitted light passed through an analyser is I  I 0 cos 2 

(  angle between transmission directions of polariser and analyser)
 Polarisation by Reflection
 Brewster's Law : The tangent of polarising angle of incidence at which reflected light
becomes completely plane polarised is numerically equal to refractive index of the
medium.   tan i p ; i p  Brewster's angle and i p  rp  90

 KEY POINTS
 The law of conservation of energy holds good in the phenomenon of interference.
 In YDSE shape of fringes are as follows
 If S1 & S2 are line source then fringes are straight lines.

 If S1 & S 2 are point source such that screen is placed parallel to line joining S1 S 2
then fringes are hyperbola.
 If S1 & S2 are point source such that screen is placed perpendicular to line
joining S1 S 2 then fringes are circular.
 If maximum number of maximas or minimas are asked in the question, use the fact
d
that value of sin  or cos  can't be greater than 1. nmax  . Total maxima

 2nmax  1

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