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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 |
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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. |
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The quantum mechanics of cricket A light-hearted discussion to illustrate why we don't notice quantum interference in everyday life. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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X-ray diffraction: Bragg's law The atomic lattice as a diffraction grating. Diffraction requires wavelengths less than 0.1 nm. X-ray diffraction. |
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Holography Forming a hologram: beam splitter, object and reference beams, interference at the film. Recreating a hologram: coherence beam and hologram plate. |
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Diffraction Experiments Single slit diffraction, diffraction gratings. |
Downloads (thumbnails at 50% of size of animation) |
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