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CHAPTER 10 - Notes on Interference & Diffraction

The document discusses the conditions for constructive and destructive interference of waves based on the superposition principle. It explains how coherent sources produce constructive interference when the path difference is a multiple of the wavelength, resulting in maximum intensity, while destructive interference occurs when the path difference is a half multiple of the wavelength, leading to zero intensity. Additionally, it highlights that incoherent sources, which do not maintain a constant phase difference, result in a time-averaged intensity of 2I0, as the intensities simply add up.

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39 views7 pages

CHAPTER 10 - Notes on Interference & Diffraction

The document discusses the conditions for constructive and destructive interference of waves based on the superposition principle. It explains how coherent sources produce constructive interference when the path difference is a multiple of the wavelength, resulting in maximum intensity, while destructive interference occurs when the path difference is a half multiple of the wavelength, leading to zero intensity. Additionally, it highlights that incoherent sources, which do not maintain a constant phase difference, result in a time-averaged intensity of 2I0, as the intensities simply add up.

Uploaded by

s.hasnainrazvi131
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Coherent & Incoherent addition of waves (Conditions for

constructive & destructive interference)


According to superposition principle, at a particular point in the medium, the
resultant displacement produced by a number of waves is the vector sum of
the displacements produced by each of the waves.
Consider two needles S1 and S2 moving
periodically up and down in an identical fashion
in a trough of water as shown in figure. They
produce two water waves, and at a particular
point, the phase difference between the
displacements produced by each of the waves
does not change with time; when this happens
the two sources are said to be coherent.
• Consider a point P for which S1 P = S2 P.Since the distances S1 P and S2
P are equal, waves from S1 and S2 will take the same time to travel to
the point P and waves that emanate from S1 and S2 in phase will also
arrive, at the point P, in phase.
Thus, if the displacement produced by the source S1 at the point P is given by
y1 = a cos ωt then, the displacement produced by the source S2 (at the point
P) will also be given by y2 = a cos ωt.
Thus, the resultant of displacement at P would be given by
y = y1 + y2 = 2 a cos ωt .
Since the intensity is proportional to the square of the amplitude, the
resultant intensity will be given by I = 4 I0 ,where I 0 represents the intensity
produced by each one of the individual sources; I0 is proportional to a2.
Thus at any point on the perpendicular bisector of S1S2, the intensity will be
4I0. The two sources are said to interfere constructively and we have what is
referred to as constructive interference.

• We next consider a point Q [Fig. (a)] for which


S2Q –S1Q = 2λ. The waves emanating from S1 will arrive
exactly two cycles earlier than the waves from S2 and will
again be in phase [Fig.(a)]. Thus, if the displacement
produced by S1 is given by y1 = a cos ωt then the
displacement produced by S2 will be given by
y2 = a cos (ωt – 4π) = a cos ωt
where we have used the fact that a path difference of 2λ corresponds to a
phase difference of 4π. The two displacements are once again in phase and
the intensity will again be 4I0 giving rise to constructive interference.

• We next consider a point R [Fig. (b)] for which


S2R – S1R = –2.5λ.The waves emanating from S1 will
arrive exactly two and a half cycles later than the
waves from S2 [Fig.(b)]. Thus if the displacement
produced by S1 is given by y1 = a cos ωt then the
displacement produced by S2 will be given by
y2 = a cos (ωt + 5π) = – a cos ωt, where we have used
the fact that a path difference of 2.5λ corresponds to
a phase difference of 5π. The two displacements are now out of phase and
the two displacements will cancel out to give zero intensity. This is referred
to as destructive interference.
To summarise:
Case 1 :If we have two coherent sources S1 and S2 vibrating in phase, then
for an arbitrary point P whenever the path difference, S1P ‒ S2P = nλ
(where n = 0, 1, 2, 3,...), we will have constructive interference and the
resultant intensity will be 4I0.
Case 2 :If the point P is such that the path difference,S1P ‒ S2P = (n+ 1/2 ) λ
(where n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ...),we will have destructive interference and the
resultant intensity will be zero.
Case 3 :For any other arbitrary point G, let the phase difference between the
two displacements be φ. Thus, if the displacement produced by S1 is given by
y1 = a cos ωt then, the displacement produced by S2 would be
y2 = a cos (ωt + φ) and the resultant displacement will be given by
y = y1 + y2 = a [cos ωt + cos (ωt +φ)] = 2 a cos (φ/2) cos (ωt + φ/2)
where we used:

The amplitude of the resultant displacement is 2a cos (φ/2) and therefore


the intensity at that point will be I = 4 I0 cos2 (φ/2).
If φ = 0, ± 2 π, ± 4 π,… ,we will have constructive interference leading to
maximum intensity 4 I0.
On the other hand, if φ = ± π, ± 3π, ± 5π … ,we will have destructive
interference leading to zero intensity.
Thus if the two sources are coherent,then the phase difference φ at any
point will not change with time and we will have a stable interference
pattern; i.e., the positions of maxima and minima will not change with time.

However, if the two needles do not maintain a constant phase difference,


then the interference pattern will also change with time and, if the phase
difference changes very rapidly with time, the positions of maxima and
minima will also vary rapidly with time and we will see a “time-averaged”
intensity distribution.
When this happens, we will observe an average intensity that will be given by

where angular brackets represent time averaging. If φ(t) varies randomly


with time, the time-averaged quantity < cos2 (φ/2) > will be 1/2. This is
because the function cos2 (φ/2) will randomly vary between 0 and 1 and the
average value will be 1/2.
The resultant intensity will be given by I = 2 I0 at all points.
i.e.When the phase difference between the two vibrating sources changes
rapidly with time, we say that the two sources are incoherent and when this
happens the intensities just add up. This is indeed what happens when two
separate light sources illuminate a wall.

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