Wave Optics

This section covers the fundamentals of wave optics, including the historical development of light theories, Huygens' principle, reflection and refraction, and phenomena such as interference and diffraction.

Introduction

This section introduces the evolution of light theories, highlighting the transition from the corpuscular model to the wave model and the key experiments that supported the latter.

Huygens Principle

Huygens' Principle states that each point on a wavefront acts as a source of secondary wavelets, which collectively determine the future positions of the wavefront.

Refraction And Reflection Of Plane Waves Using Huygens Principle

This section explains Huygens' principle to derive the laws of reflection and refraction for plane waves at the interface of two media.

Refraction Of A Plane Wave

This section discusses the refraction of a plane wave using Huygens' principle to derive Snell's law.

Refraction At A Rarer Medium

This section discusses how light refracts when passing from a denser medium to a rarer medium, including the relationship between angles of incidence and refraction, as well as the concept of critical angle.

Reflection Of A Plane Wave By A Plane Surface

This section discusses Huygens' principle applied to plane wave reflection, establishing the law of reflection.

Coherent And Incoherent Addition Of Waves

This section discusses the differences between coherent and incoherent wave sources and the interference patterns produced as a result of their superposition.

Young’s Interference Of Light Waves And Young's Experiment

This section discusses Young's interference experiment, which demonstrates the wave nature of light and results in observable interference patterns.

Diffraction

Diffraction is the phenomenon where waves spread out after passing through an opening or around obstacles, leading to observable patterns.

The Single Slit

This section discusses the phenomenon of diffraction, particularly through a single narrow slit, highlighting how light spreads out and forms a characteristic pattern.

Seeing The Single Slit Diffraction Pattern

The section explains how to observe the single-slit diffraction pattern using simple household items.

Polarisation

Polarization describes the orientation of the oscillations of light waves, contrasting linearly polarized waves with unpolarized waves.

Summary

This section summarizes key concepts in wave optics, including Huygens' principle, the laws of reflection and refraction, interference patterns, diffraction, and polarization.