Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology

School of Physics and Material Sciences

L. M. Thapar School of Management, DeraBassi

Applied Physics (UPH004)

Tutorial 2 (Interference)

1. Two beams are forming an interference fringe pattern.

(a) What is the visibility of fringes if their amplitudes are in the ratio of 1:1, 3:1 and 10:1.
(b) What ratio of amplitudes produces a visibility of 0.5.
2.1. What is the minimum thickness of a parallel film (µ = 1.4) in which interference of green
component of the normally incident light can take place by reflection?
2.2. What is the minimum thickness of a parallel film (µ = 1.5) which appears red by interference
when red component of light (λ = 700 nm) is reflected normally?
2.3. A parallel beam of light (λ = 589 nm) is incident on a thin glass plate (µ = 1.5) such that the
angle of refraction into the plate is 60°. Calculate the smallest thickness of the glass plate
which will appear dark by reflection.
2.4. A soap film (µ = 1.33) is formed using a rectangular wire frame and held in a vertical plane.
Due to gravitation the soap film becomes wedge shaped with an angle of 0.1° and the
thickness of wire is 1 µm. When illuminated normally by a laser light of wavelength 700 nm,
find the first three distances from the wire which appear red.
2.5. The refractive index of given transparent oil is to be determined. 0.2 cc of its volume is
dropped on a water surface of area 1 sq. metre and white light which is incident normally is
observed through a spectrometer. The spectrum is seen to contain one dark band whose centre
has wavelength 550 nm in air. Complete the experiment.
2.6. A parallel beam of sodium light strike a film of oil (µ = 1.46) floating on water (µ = 1.33).
When viewed at an angle of 30° from the normal, the 8th dark band is seen. Find the thickness
of the film. Wavelength of sodium light is 589 nm.
2.7. A man of 1.5 m height stands on an oil film on water surface and observes greenish colour at
a distance of 100 cm from his feet. Calculate the probable thickness of the film (λ green = 50
nm, µoil = 1.4 and µwater = 1.33).
3. A beam of white light (400 – 700 nm) is incident at an angle of 45o on two thick parallel glass
plates separated by an air film 0.001 cm thick. The reflected light is admitted into a prism
spectroscope. How many dark lines are seen across the entire spectrum?
4. A white light is incident at an angle of 60o with the plane of a transparent film. The film has
thickness of 400 nm and refractive index of 1.5. What wavelengths of this light will be
strengthened by reflection?
5. A soap film (µ = 1.33) is formed using a rectangular wire frame and held in a vertical plane.
When illuminated by a laser light of wavelength 632.8 nm, one sees a series of localized
interference fringes that measure 15 per cm. Explain their formation.
6. A light beam (λ = 600nm) is incident on a wedge shaped film (of angle 0.5’). If the fringes of
width 1 mm are formed what is the refractive index of material of the film?
7. A beam of monochromatic light of wavelength 582 nm falls normally on a wedge shaped film
of glass with angle of wedge 20 seconds of an arc. Find the number of interference fringes per
cm of the wedge length if the refractive index of the material of film is 1.5.
8. Two pieces of plane glass plate are placed together with a piece of paper between them at one
edge. If on viewing the film normally with monochromatic blue light (λ = 580 nm) one sees
18 bands per cm find the angle of wedge shaped air film between plates.
9. Two plane glass surfaces in contact along one edge are separated at the opposite edge by a thin
wire. If 20 interference fringes are observed between these edges in sodium light (λ = 589.3
nm) at normal incidence, what is the thickness of the wire?
10. A thin film of MgF2 (µ = 1.38) is deposited on a glass so that it is anti-reflecting at a
wavelength of 580 nm under normal incidence. What wavelength is minimally reflected when
the light is incident at 45o.
11. What will be the refractive index of the coating material to make a crown glass (µ= 1.53) a
non-reflecting glass?
12. If the diameters of 10th and 15th dark rings of a Newton’s ring pattern are found to be 6.0 mm
and 8.0 mm respectively, find the diameter of the 5th dark ring. Plane glass plate and plano-
convex lens combination is used to produce interference pattern due to reflected beams.
13. Newton’s rings are formed in the air film enclosed between a plano-convex lens (R = 50 cm)
and a plane glass plate by reflection. Diameters of 4th and 20th bright rings are respectively
2.03 mm and 4.84 mm. Show that the lens and the plate are not exactly in contact. Also, find
the wavelength of the light used.
14. If the diameter of nth dark ring in a Newton’s ring arrangement changes from 1.2 to 1.0 cm
on replacing air by a transparent liquid, find the refractive index of the liquid.