Contents

 Certificate
 Introduction
 Total Internal Reflection
 Conditions for Total Internal Reflection
 Relation between refractive index and critical
angle
 Applications of Total Internal Reflection
 Uses
 Theory(Young`s double slit exp.)
 Experiment
 Interference Patterns
 Conditions for Constructive and Destructive
Interference
 Derivation
 Graph
 Conditions
Introduction
Whenever a ray of incident light travels from one medium to another, its path is
changed i.e. it gets refracted.
If the ray travels from denser medium to rarer medium, it suffers deviation away
from the normal at the point of incidence. As the angle of incidence is increased,
the angle of refraction also keeps on increasing. At a certain angle of incidence,
called the critical angle, the refracted ray grazes along the surface of separation i.e.
angle of refraction becomes just go. If the angle of incidence is further increased,
no refraction takes place. Instead such a ray gets reflection inside the medium
itself. This phenomenon is called total internal reflection.
 Refraction :
The phenomenon of bending of light when it come from one medium to another
medium is called refraction.

 Reflection:
The phenomenon in which a ray comes from one medium and bending of that ray
in same medium i.e. Total Internal Reflection takes place called reflection.
  Total Internal Reflection
Total internal reflection is the phenomenon of reflection of light which occurs
when a ray of light traveling in a denser medium is incident at the interference of
the two media at an angle greater than the critical angle for that pair of media.
Consider a surface xy separates the rarer medium a from the denser medium b. A
ray of light OA from the object O in denser medium incident normally on the
surface of separation, gets refracted into the rarer medium as such along AL.
Another ray of light incident along the oblique path OA, is refracted away from
normal along the path A1B1 in rarer medium. As the angle of incidence is
increased, the angle of refraction also goes on increasing, till for a certain angle of
incidence C, called the critical angle. When angle of incidence is greater than
critical angle then total internal reflection takes place.

 Conditions for Total Internal Reflection

1. The ray incident on the interface should travel in optically denser medium.
2. The angle of incidence should be greater than the critical angle for the given
pair of media.

1. Introduction
Relation between refractive index ( ) and critical angle (C)
When refraction takes place at point C, it follows that the refractive index of
medium a w.r.t. medium b is given by

b a=
 a b=

if i = c (critical angle)
r = 90o

a b=
Refractive index is inversely proportional to sin of critical angle.
Its relation with polarizing angle :
According to Brewster’s Law, when light is incident at polarizing angle at the
interface of a refracting medium, the refractive index of the medium is equal to
the tangent of the polarizing angle.If P is polarizing angle and u, the refractive
index of the refracting medium, then u = tan P.
2. Applications for Total Internal Reflection
1. Totally Reflection Prism :
To deviate a ray of light through 90o and 180o.
A right angled isosceles prism can be used to cause total internal reflection. In
such a right angled prism when a ray of light is incident normally to its face AB, it
passes into prism as incidence is 45o. But for glass , the value of critical angle is
about 41.8o. Since the value of incident angle is greater than the critical angle for
glass, the ray of right suffers total internal refection. As a result, it gets incident on
the force AC at 90o and comes out of the prism as such. It follows that the path of
the ray of right was been deviated by the prism through 90o.
The path of a ray undergoing a deviation of 90o due to one internal reflection but
in same way and by same process due to two internal reflection, a ray can be
deviated through 180o. This arrangement is used in prism-binoculars.

Advantages of Totally Reflecting Prism over the Silvered Plane Mirror.

 A reflecting prism does not require any silvering.
 A silvered plane mirror always absorbs some light. In a good mirror, the reflection
of light about 90-95%. However, in a reflecting prism, almost 100% reflection is
secured.
 Due to imperfect and non-uniform silvering of the mirror, the image obtained
with a mirror is often not of a good quality.

2. Mirage :
It is an optical illusion observed in desert in a hot day. The object such as tree is
observed inverted and observer gets an impression that there is a pool of water.
This phenomena is known as mirage.
Due to intense heat, the surface of earth becomes quite hot and the temperature
of air near the surface of earth is max. The temp of the other layers of the air goes
on decreasing as one goes up. Dimity as well as refractive index of air increases
slightly for higher layers. Thus a ray of light traveling from point O of a tree passes
through air of gradually decreasing refractive index and is therefore refracted
more and more away from the normal and accordingly the angle of incidence
goes on increasing. At a layer, when the angle of incidence becomes greater than
the critical angle, total internal reflection takes place. Then the ray of light starts
traversing layers of increasing refractive index and goes on bending more and
more towards the normal. Ultimately, when the ray reaches the eye of the
observer, it appears to be coming from the point I. Hence the inverted image of
the tree produces the impression of reflection from a pool of water.

3. Brilliance of Diamonds and Other Precious Stones :

Diamond shines very brightly because it has a very high refractive index and very
low critical angle i.e. = 2.47 & C = 230 . Dur to low critical angle, a diamond cut so
as to have a large number of faces, such that a ray of light entering it from one
face undergoes repeated total internal reflections from other faces. As a result,
the faces through which the light emerges, shine very brilliantly.

4. Optical Fibers :
In 1870, John Tyndall, a British physicist demonstrated that light could be made to
follow curved path along a thin stream of water coming out of a water tank. This
effect was made use of an illuminated fountains. The light follows curved path it
suffers a series of total internal reflections.
Optical fibres commits of thousands of strands of a very fine quality glass or
quartz of refractive index about 1.7 or so. The thickness of a strand is about 10-
6
cm. The strands are coated with a layer of some material of lower refractive
index ( =1.5).
When light is incident at a small angle at are end, it gets refracted into strands
and gets incident on the interface of the fibers and the coating. The angle of
incidence being greater than critical angle, the ray of light undergoes total
internal reflections. Each fiber act as a pipe and such a bundle of fibers can be
used to convey images along paths of any shape. The optical fiber does not bend
light. Instead, light follows the zig-zag path through the fibers.

5. Looming :
It is an optical illusion observed in the cold countries. In which observers get an
impression that object is placed in air.

3. Uses
i) Optical fibers are used in the field of communication and the computers.
ii) The optical fibers are used for making medical investigation.
iii) The optical fiber sensors have been used to measure temperature and
pressure.
iv) The optical are used for transmitting the optical signals and the two
dimensional pictures.
v) The optical fiber in the form of photometric sensors are used for measuring the
blood flow in the heart.
vi) The optical fiber in the form of refract meters are used to determine the
refractive indices of liquids.
vii) Optical fiber are used in telephone and other transmitting cables.
viii) Optical fiber are used in transmission and reception of electrical signals by
converting them first into light signal.
About young`s exp
THEORY
 COHERENT SOURCES
The sources of light, which emit continuous light waves of the same
wavelength, same frequency and in the same phase difference are called
coherent sources. Conditions to obtain coherent light :

1. Two sources should be single source or by same device.

2. Two sources should give monochromatic light.

3. The path difference b/w light waves from 2 sources should be small.

 INTERFERENCE OF LIGHT
It is the phenomenon of redistribution of light energy in a medium on
account of superposition of light wave from 2 coherent sources. There are 2
types:

1. Constructive Interference.
2. Destructive Interference
EXPERIMENT

Young’s Double Slit Experiment

Set up the apparatus as shown below.

The appearance of bright and dark fringes on screen can be explained on the basis
of interference of light. According to Huygens principle, the monochromatic
source of light illuminating the slit S sends out spherical wavefronts. Let the solid
arcs represent the crests ant the dotted arcs represents the troughs. These
wavefronts reach the slits A and B simultaneously which in turn, become sources
of secondary wavelets. Thus the 2 waves on superposition produce interference.
The dots (.) represent the positions of constructive interference, where crests of
one wave falls on crests of the other and trough falls on trough. The resultant
Amplitude and hence intensity of light is maximum at these positions. The lines
joining the dots lead to points C, E, G on the screen.

Similarly, the crosses (x) represent the positions of destructive interference,

where crest of one wave falls on trough of the other and vice-versa. The resultant
amplitude and hence intensity of light is minimum at these positions. The lines
joining the crosses lead to points D, F on the screen.

Thus we have Bright Fringes at C, E, and G and Dark Fringes at D and F.

These bright and dark fringes are placed alternatively and they are equally
spaced. These are called INTEFERENCE FRINGES.

 INTERFERENCE PATTERNS
Let the waves from 2 coherent sources of light be represented as

y1 = a sinωt…………………………(1)

y2 = b sin (ωt + θ)……………………..(2)

where a and b ate the respective amplitudes of 2 waves and θ is the constant
phase angle by which second wave leads the first wave.

According to superposition principle, the displacement y of the resultant wave at

time t would be given by

y=y1 + y2 = a sinωt + b sin(ωt + θ)

= a sinωt + b sinωt cosθ + b cosωt sinθ

y = sinωt(a+b cosθ) + cosωt.b sinθ……………..(3)

put a + b cosθ = A cosФ…………….(4)

b sinθ = A sinФ……………..(5)

Therefore y = sinωt.AcosФ + cosωt.AsinФ

=A(sinωtcosФ + cosωtsinФ)

y = A sin (wt +Ф)………………..(6)

Thus the resultant wave is a harmonic wave of amplitude A.

Squaring (4) and (5) and adding

We get,

A = √a2 + b2 + 2ab cosθ ……….(7)

As resultant intensity I is directly proportional to the square of the amplitude of

the resultant wave

Thus I αA2i.e. I αa2 + b2 + 2ab cosθ…….(8)

 Conditions for constructive and Destructive

Interference,

Constructive Interference
I should be maximum, for which

Cosθ = max = +1 so, θ = 0,2 π,4π,…..

i.e. θ = 2nπ ; where n = 0, 1, 2……

if x is the path difference, then

x=λθ/2π

x = λ (2n π)/2π i.e. x=nλ

Hence, condition for constructive interference at a point is that phase difference
b/w the 2 waves reaching the point should be zero or an even integral multiple of
π.

Path difference b/w the 2 waves reaching the point should be 0 or an integral
multiple of full wavelength.

So Amax=(a+b) ‘

Destructive Interference
I should be minimum, for which

Cosθ = min = -1 so, θ = π ,3π,5π,…..

i.e. θ = (2n-1)π ; where n = 1,2,3……

if x is the path difference, then

x=λθ/2π

x = λ ((2n-1) π)/2π

x=(2n-1)λ/2

Hence, condition for constructive interference at a point is that phase difference

b/w the 2 waves reaching the point should be an odd integral multiple of π.

Or
Path difference b/w the 2 waves reaching the point should be an odd integral
multiple of half the wavelength.

So , Amin=(a-b)

 DERIVATION
Expression for Fringe Width in Interference
Looking at Figure ,

The intensity of light at the point on the screen will depend on the path difference
b/w the 2 waves arriving at that point. The point C is at equal distance from A and
B. Therefore, the path difference b/w 2 waves reaching C is 0 and the point C is of
maximum intensity. It is called CENTRAL MAXIMUM.
Consider a point p at a distance x from C. The path difference b/w 2 waves
arriving at P,

= BP – AP…….(9)

Let O be the mid point of AB, and

AB = EF = d, AE = BF = D

From the figure,

PE = PC – EC= x-d/2

and PF = PC + CF = x+d/2

By Pythagoras and Binomially,

BP= D[1 + (x + d/2)2/2D2]……..(10)

and AP= D[1 + (x - d/2)2/2D2]………(11)

Putting these values in (9), we get, path difference

BP-AP= D[1 + (x + d/2)2/2D2 - 1 - (x - d/2)2/2D2]

BP - AP= xd/D……………..(12)

1. For Bright Fringes

Path Difference = xd/D = nλ where n= 0,1,2…

or x=nλD/d ……..(13)

2. For Dark Fringes

Path Difference = xd/D = (2n-1)λ/2 where n=1,2,3…

or x=(2n-1)λD/2d ……..(14)

Comparison shows that dark interference fringes are situated in b/w bright
interference fringes and vice-versa.
Separation b/w the centers of 2 consecutive bright fringes is the width of dark
fringe.

β = xn – xn-1 = nλD/d- (n-1)λD/d

β= λD/d……….(15)

Similarly, separation b/w the centers of 2 consecutive bright fringes is the width
of dark fringe.

Β’ = x’n – x’n-1 = [(2n-1)λD/2d]-[(2(n-1)-1) λD/2d]

β = β’= λD/d……….(16)

So, all bright and dark fringes are of equal width.

 GRAPH
Intensity Vs Path Difference
Angular separation of the fringes is just (λ/d). It is independent of the position on
the screen.

Further, at sites of constructive interference,

Imax α R2maxα (a+b) 2 = constant

Hence all bright interference bands have same intensity

At sites of destructive interference,

Imax α R2max α (a-b) 2 = constant = 0 (at a=b)

Hence all dark interference bands have same (zero) intensity.

Figure above represents the intensity of double slit interference pattern as a

function of path difference θ b/w the waves of the screen.

 CONDITIONS
(For Sustained Interference)

1. The 2 sources of light must be coherent i.e. they continuous light waves of
same wavelength or frequency, which have either same phase of constant
path difference.
2. The 2 sources should be strong with least background.
3. The amplitudes of waves from 2 sources should preferably be equal.
4. The 2 sources should preferably be monochromatic.
5. The coherent sources must be very close to each other.
6. The 2 sources should be point and narrow sources.