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Riley Yakel
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If the equation for phase difference, 2(pi)(path difference/wavelength) gave you a value like 12.25pi
would that be the phase difference or would it be .25pi?
would that be the phase difference or would it be .25pi?
Mathematically yes but, in real life the vector addition can go wrong because of the Coherence length of the source. Another way of looking at it is the bandwidth of the source and the phase will not be stable. This means that a signal with a large path difference will not necessarily be identical to the undelayed signal and cancellation can fail. Interference fringes get fuzzier and fuzzier for off-axis parts of the pattern.blue_leaf77 said:Both are equivalent.
Ah, that's a good point. I completely forget about the possibility for the source to have limited coherence length.sophiecentaur said:Mathematically yes but, in real life the vector addition can go wrong because of the Coherence length of the source. Another way of looking at it is the bandwidth of the source and the phase will not be stable. This means that a signal with a large path difference will not necessarily be identical to the undelayed signal and cancellation can fail. Interference fringes get fuzzier and fuzzier for off-axis parts of the pattern.
Thin film interference is a phenomenon that occurs when light waves reflect off of two surfaces with a certain thickness of a transparent material in between. The light waves interfere with each other, resulting in either constructive or destructive interference, and producing a colorful pattern.
When a light wave travels through a medium, it can be partially reflected and partially transmitted. When the reflected wave meets the incident wave, they can either amplify or cancel each other out, depending on the phase difference between them. This phase difference is affected by the thickness of the film and the refractive indices of the materials involved.
No, the maximum phase difference that can occur in thin film interference is 2pi. This is because the phase difference is directly related to the thickness of the film and the wavelength of light, and once the phase difference reaches 2pi, it starts repeating itself.
The phase difference in thin film interference is affected by the thickness of the film, the refractive indices of the materials, and the wavelength of light. The refractive indices of the materials determine the speed of light in each medium, while the thickness of the film and the wavelength of light determine the path length difference between the reflected and transmitted waves.
Thin film interference is important in many fields, including optics, electronics, and materials science. It is used in the production of anti-reflective coatings for lenses, in optical filters, and in the design of thin film solar cells. Understanding thin film interference also allows scientists to study the properties of materials, such as their refractive indices, and can provide valuable information in fields such as nanotechnology and biophysics.