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PH113 / Assignment - Module 1

(Dated: September 11, 2023)

1. Malus Law.

(a) Consider a geometry of sequence of two polarizers rotated at a relative angle of 45◦
from each other. What would be resulting amplitude and intensity if the incident
unpolarized (light) beam had the intensity I0 ?

(b) Similar to above, consider a sequence of three polarizers at relative angles of 20◦ to
each other. Also, the first polarizer is aligned along the y-axis. Compute the intensities
Ii (i = 1, 2, 3) after each polarizer if the intensity of the y-polarized source is given to
be I0 = 1000 W/m2 .

(c) What happens to the final intensity if the second polarizer is removed?

Comment: It is rather straight-forward to generalize this situation to n polarizers sep-

arated by angle θ (fixed!). In principle, it would be interesting to find out when the
resulting intensity will be ≲ 0.10I0 .

Comment: At-home exercise: Find Polaroid sunglasses and rotate one while holding
the other still and look at different surfaces and objects. Explain your observations.
What is the difference in angle from when you see a maximum intensity to when you
see a minimum intensity? Find a reflective glass surface and do the same. At what
angle does the glass need to be oriented to give minimum glare?

2. Brewster angle

On a calm surface of a pond or a lake (interface between air and water), for which position
of the sun would the reflected light from the interface be completely linearly polarized. The
refractive indexes for air and water should be taken as nair = 1 and nwater = 1.33.

Comment: This situation is, in fact, realized at the beaches or lakes.

3. A plate of flint glass (refractive index 1.67) is immersed in water (refractive index 1.33).
Calculate the Brewster angle for internal as well as external reflection at an interface.
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4. Double refraction.

A thin quartz crystal of thickness t has been cut so that the optical axis is ∥ to the surface
of the crystal. For sodium light (λ = 589 nm), the refractive index of the crystal is 1.55 for
e-ray and 1.54 for o-ray. If two beams of light polarized ∥ and ⊥ O.A., respectively, start
through the crystal in-phase, how thick must the crystal be if the emerging rays have a phase
difference of π/2.

5. Plane waves and their superposition

(a) Plot y = y0 cos(ωt − kx + ϕ) for (i) ω = 1 s−1 , (ii) ω = 0.5 s−1 and ϕ = 0,±π/4, ±π/2,
±π, ±2π. What are the units of ϕ, ω and k?

(b) Consider superposition of two plane waves of equal amplitude and in-phase (ϕ = 0),
polarized along x̂ and ŷ, respectively. What would be resultant? (Find the amplitude
and polarization of the resultant wave).

(c) In the above, consider the phase-difference between the two waves to be fixed at ϕ = π.
How does this affect the resultant wave?

(d) Show that the the amplitude of the wave obtained by superposition of two waves of
equal amplitude and a phase difference of ϕ = π/2 is equal to the amplitude of the
initial waves. What does the wavefront of the superposed wave look like?

What happens for ϕ = −π/2?

Comment: The phase difference of π/2 leads to circularly polarized light. Depending on
the sign of the phase difference, one obtains left or right circularly polarized light. The
nomenclature for left/right is somewhat subjective in literature. However, an accepted
practice is to look towards the direction of propagation.

6. Interference

Prove the cosine law: the path difference between the interfering beams in a (parallel ) thin
film geometry at oblique incidence is 2µt cos θr , where µ is the refractive index of the denser
medium, t is the thickness of the medium, and θr is the angle of refraction with respect to
normal.

7. A thin film of thickness 4 ×10−5 cm is illuminated by white light normal to its surface. Its
refractive index is 1.5. Of what color will the thin film appear in reflected light?
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8. White light is reflected normally from a uniform oil film (n = 1.33). An interference max-
imum for 6000 Å and a minimum for 4500 Å with no minimum in between, are observed.
Calculate the thickness of the film.

9. Interference from wedge-shaped surfaces

Light of wavelength λ = 6300 Å falls normally on a thin wedge-shaped film (n = 1.5). There
are ten bright and nine dark fringes over the length of the film. By how much does the film
thickness change over this length?

10. Two glass plates 12 cm long touch at one end, and are separated by a wire 0.048 mm in
diameter at the other. How many bright fringes will be observed over the 12 cm distance in
the light (λ = 6800 Å ) reflected normally from the plates? (Take µ = 1).

11. Newton’s rings

(a) What is an efficient (and presumably error-free) way to obtain λ?

(b) Show that in the Newton’s rings arrangement, if the plano-convex lens is slowly lifted
vertically upwards, the fringes will move inwards.

(c) Newton’s rings are formed in reflected light of wavelength 5895 Å with a liquid between
the plane and curved surfaces. The diameter of the 5th ring is 0.3 cm and the radius of
curvature of the curved surface is 100 cm. Calculate the refractive index of the liquid,
when the 5th ring is i) bright, ii) dark.

Comment: Explicitly derive the conditions for observing a bright spot at the center.

12. Solution to the transcendental equation tan(x) = x.

13. Diffraction from a single slit.

Sound wave has a speed of 330 m/s, and suppose it’s frequency is 100 Hz. What would be
the typical aperture size to experience appreciable diffraction?

14. Diffraction from 2-slit arrangement.

Explicitly derive the conditions for maxima/minima. Note and plot the intensity profile.
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15. Computational/Simulation exercise(s).

Plot the resulting intensity patterns from (i) a single slit diffraction; (ii) double slit diffraction.

Solution. Check out these links:

• Single slit: Geogebra - based on the formula

• Young’s double slit: Geogebra, Javalab or, oPhysics

Comment: Study the dependence on the slit width, etc.

I. EXEMPLARY MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Polarization for longitudinal waves can be defined as

2. Polarization of an EM wave is defined as

3. In Newton’s rings experiment, if the diameter of a certain order of a dark ring is four times
that of the second ring, then what is the order of the ring?

4. When Two waves of same amplitude add constructively, the intensity becomes:

5. If instead of monochromatic light white light is used for interference of light in a parallel
thin film setup, what would be the change in the observation?
a) The pattern will not be visible
b) The shape of the pattern will change from hyperbolic to circular
c) Colored fringes will be observed with a white bright fringe at the center
d) The bright and dark fringes will change position

6. Interference is observed only when the phase difference between the two waves is zero.
a) True
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b) False

7. A thin sheet of refractive index 1.5 and thickness 1 cm is placed in the path of light. What
is the path difference observed?

8. In Newton’s ring experiment, the diameter of the 10th ring changes from 1.40 to 1.23 cm
when a liquid is introduced between the lens and glass plate. What is the refractive index
of the liquid?
a) 1.05
b) 1.15
c) 1.25
d) 1.35

9. For a ray incident from a denser to rarer medium, what is the critical angle of incidence ?

10. In NR expt, the diameter of the bright ring is given by

a) square root of odd natural numbers
b) natural numbers
c) even natural numbers
d) square root of natural numbers

11. In NR expt, if we reduce the radius of curvature of the lens, what will be the effect on the
rings:

12. In NR, the central spot is

a) always dark
b) always bright
c) could be dark/bright
d) of a specific color