C38 - Diffraction Patterns

condition for destructive interference (single slit)

intensity of single-slit diffraction (fraunhofer)

fraunhofer diffraction

light source is very far away (i.e. incident rays are approximately parallel)

limiting angle of resolution (slit)

limiting angle of resolution (circular aperture)

Rayleigh’s criterion

When the central maximum falls on another’s first minimum, the images are just resolved

condition for interference maxima (for a diffraction grating)

Bragg’s Law

*condition for constructive interference

*θ = angle from reflecting surface

Malus’s Law

Brewster’s law

*θ_p = polarizing angle

*@ θ_p, reflected light is 100% polarized perpendicular to incident plane

*refracted light is always partially polarized parallel to incident plane