Links to related material

 
Diffraction, shadows, beams, Huygens' construction.
Diffraction of light and sound. Water waves in a ripple tank. Shadows and beams with water waves of short wavelength. Diffraction at longer wavelengths. X-ray, neutron and electron diffraction
Diffraction from a single slit. Young's experiment with finite slits.
Diffraction from a single slit:Huygens' construction. Phasor diagrams give Iq. Varying the slit width. Young's experiment with finite slit width: Iq shows both interference and diffraction effects.
The quantum mechanics of cricket
A light-hearted discussion to illustrate why we don't notice quantum interference in everyday life.
Diffraction gratings and spectroscopy.
Adding phasors with 2, 3, 4 and many slits: Diffraction gratings. Diffraction from monochromatic sources. Continuous spectra and line spectra, absorption and emission spectra. The hydrogen spectrum and the origins of quantum mechanics.
Poisson-Arago dot
The bright dot at the centre of the shadow: Poisson's argument against the wave nature of light. A modern recreation of Arago's experiment.
Rayleigh criterion and the Airy disc: Aperture and resolution
Circular apertures in optics. Diffraction pattern from a circular aperture. The Airy disc. Resolving two point sources: Rayleigh's criterion. When is the eye diffraction limited? The resolution of telescopes. Radio telescopes and arrays
X-ray diffraction: Bragg's law
The atomic lattice as a diffraction grating. Diffraction requires wavelengths less than 0.1 nm. X-ray diffraction.
Holography
Forming a hologram: beam splitter, object and reference beams, interference at the film. Recreating a hologram: coherence beam and hologram plate.
Diffraction Experiments
Single slit diffraction, diffraction gratings.

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