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Journal of Optics A Pure and Applied Optics

Experimental observation of spectral changes of partially coherent light in Young’s experiment

Bharat Kumar Yadav, Syed A. Rizvi, Hem Chandra Kandpal

Published Dec 13, 2005• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Experimental observations of a study conducted to investigate spectral shifting and spectral switching that take place in Young's double-slit experiment with partially coherent light are reported. It is shown that for certain critical distances in the near zone of the double slit, the phenomenon of spectral switching is observed, while for other situations a spectral shift is observed. These results are consistent with a theoretical study by Pan and Lu.

DOI
10.1088/1464-4258/8/1/011

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Experimental observations of a study conducted to investigate spectral shifting and spectral switching that take place in Young's double-slit experiment with partially coherent light are reported. It is shown that for certain critical distances in the near zone of the double slit, the phenomenon of spectral switching is observed, while for other situations a spectral shift is observed. These results are consistent with a theoretical study by Pan and Lu.
Adopting the technique of different position probes into the spectrum of partially coherent light,study the spectral shift and spectral switch of partially coherent polychromatic light in Young′s double-slit experiment.The experimental results show that,in the interference field,the normalized spectrum is redshifted at some observation points,is blueshifed at others,and the spectral shift changes rapidly from red shift to blueshifted at the critical points,i.e.,the spectral switch occurs.Furthermore,it is shown that the slit parameter and observation distance effect on the spectral shift and the spectral switch in Young's double-slit interference experiment.
The expression for the spectral density of polychromatic Gaussian and Gaussian-Schell model (GSM) beams propagating through double slits in Young's experiment are derived, which enables us to study the behavior of spectral switches in Young's experiment illuminated by fully and partially coherent polychromatic light beams and to judge if their spectral switches belong to the effect in singular optics. It is shown that the criterion for the effect in singular optics with polychromatic light field should be Smin=0 (Smin is the minimum of the spectral density at spectral switches) rather than Imin=0 (Imin is the minimum of the total intensity). In Young's experiment illuminated by polychromatic GSM beams the spectral switches in both near and far zones are not attributed to the effect in singular optics because Smin≠0. If the double slits in Young’s experiment are illuminated by polychromatic Gaussian beam, the spectral switches in the far zone belong to the effect in singular optics, whereas it is not the case in the near zone.
We discuss Young's double-slit experiment using a partially coherent light source consisting of a helium-neon laser incident on a rotating piece of white paper. Such an experiment is appropriate for undergraduate students as an independent project or as part of an advanced lab course. As is well known, the resulting interference pattern is observed to disappear and return, depending on the angular size of the source. Interestingly, while the standard theoretical prediction for the light intensity agrees quite well with experimental data when the fringe visibility is high, the prediction is noticeably off when the visibility is low. A first-principles calculation of the light intensity is performed and shown to agree extremely well with the experimental results for all visibilities.