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Journal of the European Optical Society Rapid Publications

Interference or not: analysis of Young’s experiment for a single-cycle pulse

G. Girieud, Silvania F. Pereira

Published Jan 1, 2006• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An analysis of Young’s interference experiment for single cycle pulses showing the time evolution of the interference pattern due to two square apertures is obtained in the Fresnel regime. The fact that the diffraction pattern from each aperture is not constant in time has consequences on the interference pattern. We have also analyzed the changes in the spectrum at different regions at the observation plane. This position-dependent spectrum results in frequency beating of the interference pattern for the case of two apertures.

DOI
10.2971/jeos.2006.06016

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An analysis of Young’s interference experiment for single cycle pulses showing the time evolution of the interference pattern due to two square apertures is obtained in the Fresnel regime. The fact that the diffraction pattern from each aperture is not constant in time has consequences on the interference pattern. We have also analyzed the changes in the spectrum at different regions at the observation plane. This position-dependent spectrum results in frequency beating of the interference pattern for the case of two apertures.
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The problem of an approximate description of the wave field of many sources is considered. It is shown that, if the problem is considered more comprehensively, the description of the interference and diffraction experiments can be given within the framework of a single scheme. It is shown that the character of wave amplification in these two classical experiments is different. In the case of an interference experiment, the field amplification is fixed at a point, while in the case of a diffraction experiment the field amplification is fixed in the observation direction. The problem of determining the intensity maximum of a diffraction grating in the Fresnel pattern is studied under the condition that the maximum is satisfied in the Fraunhofer pattern. A condition under which a diffraction grating behaves like a lens is obtained.
Here are proposed a modified version of Young’s experiment on slits with an arbitrary angle between them. Also here performed mathematical analysis of the proposed scheme, showing that the intensity distribution can be approximated by a hyperbolic function. Experimental data confirm theoretical calculations. Analysis of the experimental results has conducted using two different methods of processing the digital data of the interference pattern. Theoretical calculations and experimental results established a nontrivial fact, that the interference patterns for slits with different, but symmetrical respect to 90° angles have the same intensity distribution. This experiment may be used as a standard laboratory work in University on optics workshop