Abstract
In this chapter we will discuss the basic concepts associated with polarization, diffraction, and interference of a light wave. The concepts developed in this chapter will be used in the rest of the book. For more details on these basic concepts, the reader may refer to Born and Wolf (1999), Jenkins and White (1981), Ghatak (2009), Ghatak and Thyagarajan (1989), and Tolansky (1955).
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Notes
- 1.
However, (\(\boldsymbol{\nabla}^2\) E) r ≠div grad E r
- 2.
For \(\nu _0=6 \times\,10^{14}\) Hz, λ0= 5000 Å and a spectral width of 7000 MHz would imply \(\left| {\frac{{\Delta\,\lambda _0 }}{{\lambda _0 }}} \right|=\frac{{\Delta\,\nu }}{{\nu _0 }}=\frac{{7 \times\,10^9 }}{{6 \times\,10^{14} }}\ \approx \ 1.2 \times\,10^{ - 5} \) giving Δλ0 ≈ 0.06 Å. Thus a frequency spectral width of 7000 MHz (around \(\nu _0=6 \times\,10^{14}\) Hz) implies a wavelength spread of only 0.06 Å.
References
Born, M., and Wolf, E. (1999), Principles of Optics, 7th Edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Ghatak, A. K. (2009), Optics, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Ghatak, A. K., and Thyagarajan, K. (1989), Optical Electronics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK [Reprinted by Foundation Books, New Delhi].
Jenkins, F. A., and White, H. E. (1981), Fundamentals of Optics, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Tolansky, S. (1955), An Introduction to Interferometry, Longmans Green and Co., London.
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Thyagarajan, K., Ghatak, A. (2011). Basic Optics. In: Lasers. Graduate Texts in Physics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6442-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6442-7_2
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