Applied Engineering Science

Dual Nature Of Light

Group Members: Tamal-e Dujon Uriahs Victor Gus Dauvergne Durand Brouet

Dual Nature of Light (As a Particle)

Newton's Corpuscular Theory of Light Obey the law of reflection when bounced off a surface Paths in denser media "bend towards the normal" Speed up when they enter denser media (gravitational force of attraction, net F = ma) Light corpuscles have mass and travel at extremely high speeds in straight lines Rectilinear propagation - blocked by large objects (well-defined shadows) Prism dispersion - contradicted corpuscular theory

The earliest scientific theories of the nature of light were proposed around the end of the 17th cent. In 1690, Christian Huygens proposed a theory that explained light as a wave phenomenon. However, a rival theory was offered by Sir Isaac Newton in 1704. Newton, who had discovered the visible spectrum in 1666, held that light is composed of tiny particles, or corpuscles, emitted by luminous bodies. By combining this corpuscular theory with his laws of mechanics, he was able to explain many optical phenomena.

Newton proposed that light consists of little masses. This means that a horizontal beam of light near the earth is undergoing projectile motion, and forms a parabola. The straight line we observe is due to the fact that the speed of the particles is so great. In one microsecond, light travels 300 m. In that time it should fall a distance y = 1/2gt2 = 5*10-12 m, much too small to be seen.

Many known properties of light could be explained easily by a particle model. For example it was known that when light reflects from a smooth surface, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. This is also how an elastic, frictionless ball bounces from a smooth surface. A key property for the particle theory is refraction. Newton imagined that matter is made of particles of some kind (today we would call them molecules or atoms). When a light particle is deep within a medium, such as water or glass, it is surrounded on all sides by equal numbers of these particles. Suppose there is an attractive force between the light particles and the matter particles. Then deep within a medium, these forces cancel each other out and there is no net force on the light particle. Then, according to Newtons first law, the light particle will continue moving in a straight line since no net force acts on it. Near an interface the situation is different. Now there are more matter particles on one side than the other, and the light particle can experience a net force. It would experience a brief attractive force towards the medium with more matter particles.

As the light particle moves into the water, it experiences a brief attractive force towards the water. This increases the vertical component of its velocity. Since it did not experience any net horizontal force, its horizontal velocity remains the same. This brief vertical force speeds the light particle up, and deflects its velocity towards the surface normal, which is what is observed. As we have seen, the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is a constant for a given pair of materials.

NEWTONS EXPLANATION OF SNELLS LAW sin(0i) = vpar/vair sin(0r) = vpar/vwater sin(0i)/sin(qr) = vwater/vair

In a right triangle the sine of an angle is equal to the ratio of the side opposite the angle to the hypotenuse. This is equal to the component of the light particles velocity parallel to the surface divided by the magnitude of the velocity in each medium. Since the light particles velocity parallel to the surface does not change, since there is a force on the particle only perpendicular to the surface, this simplifies the ratio of the two sines. We see that the ratio of sines, which is just equal to the index of refraction, is equal to the ratio of the speed of the light particle in water to that in air. This immediately explains why each pair of materials has a different value for the index of refraction. All Newton needed to do was to claim

that the speed of light is different in different transparent materials. This is a simple explanation of Snells law. Newton regarded it as one of his triumphs. He concluded his discussion of this in his book Opticks with the words I take this tobe a very convincing argument of the full truth of this proposition. For more than 100 years, Newton's corpuscular theory of light was favored over the wave theory, partly because of Newton's great prestige and partly because not enough experimental evidence existed to provide an adequate basis of comparison between the two theories.

Dual Nature of Light (As a Particle)

The scientist who debated much on light as a particle was Sir Isaac Newton, with his prism experiments Sir Isaac proved that light travels in a shower of particles, each proceeding in a straight line until it is refracted, absorbed, reflected, diffracted or disturbed in some other manner. Evidence that light is a particle:

Light travels in straight lines; if light is a particle then it wont be able to diffract after going through an opening or around an obstacle. Particles always move in straight lines and since light seem to move in straight lines then that suggests that light is a particle. Light can travel though a vacuum; during Newtons era the only waves that anybody knew much about were mechanical waves which by nature need a medium to move through, such as sound. Though these were early ages scientists still had the understanding and agreed that between the earth and sun was a vacuum, so how could light reach earth if it was a wave? Then again if light is a particle it would have no trouble moving through a vacuum. Photons Light behaves in some ways as if it consists of discrete particles rather than infinitely variable waves. These particles have been designated photons. Characteristics of these photons: Any single photon has a fixed, discrete energy level. Each color of light has its own unique energy level and it is not possible to increase or decrease the energy of that single photon without changing its wavelength or absorbing it completely therefore ending its existence. The intensity of visible light can be increased or decreased only by changing the number of photons present. Actually, photons are not particles in the physical sense that we normally associate with that word. Rather, they consist of discrete bundles of energy which are fixed in magnitude. As a result, each photon takes on some of the characteristics of a physical particle. Viewed in this context, light still does not change its basic behavior. These apparent particles are electrically neutral, so they tend to travel in straight lines, without being affected by either magnetic fields or electrical fields.

The Photoelectric Effect

We know that a photon is a bundle of energy; we also know that photons can transfer its energy to an electron; this is what happens in the Photoelectric effect. The Photoelectric effect is phenomenon that happens when matter such as metals and non-metallic solids emit electrons because of the absorption of energy. This effect is also known as the Hertz effect and the electrons emitted are called photoelectrons.

The Photoelectric effect:

Max Planks Formula for finding energy in a photon:

E=h*f Where: e= Energy h=Planks constant (6.63 x 10 f = c/ ______________________________________________________________________ C= Speed of light = wavelength of the wave
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Dual Nature of Light (As a Wave)

Huygens Principle Plane waves generate plane waves, circular waves generate circular waves obey the law of reflection when bounced off a surface wavelet envelop model (each point on a wavefront acts as a source for the next wavefront) Light was composed of longitudinal waves like sound Waves slowed down when they entered a denser medium causing their paths to "bend towards the normal" Light should produce interference patterns and diffraction patterns

The way in which light travels as a wave comes in many forms being Refraction and Reflection Interference Spectrum and dispersion Diffraction Polarization

Light can travel not only as a particle but also as a wave as we can see from the headings above.

Refraction and Reflection

What is refraction and reflection?

All waves are known to undergo reflection or the bouncing off of an obstacle. The reflection of light waves off of a mirrored surface results in the formation of an image. One characteristic of wave reflection is that the angle at which the wave approaches a flat reflecting surface is equal to the angle at which the wave leaves the surface. This characteristic is observed for water waves and sound waves. It is also observed for light waves. Light, like any wave, follows the law of reflection when bouncing off surfaces

However the laws of refraction are different. All waves are known to undergo refraction when they pass from one medium to another medium. That occurs when a wave front crosses the boundary between two media, the direction that the wave front is moving undergoes a sudden change and the path is bent. First, the direction of "bending" is dependent upon the relative speed of the two media. A wave will bend towards the normal if the speed of the medium is slow and away if the speed is fast. Second, the amount of bending is dependent upon the actual speeds of the two media on each side of the boundary.. These equations are based upon the speeds of the wave in the two media and the angles at which the wave approaches and departs from the boundary. Light, like any wave, is known to refract as it passes from one medium into another medium.

Interference

Interference is what happens when two or more waves come together. Depending on how the peaks and troughs of the waves are matched up, the waves might add together or they can partially or even completely cancel each other.

Linear superposition The principle of linear superposition - when two or more waves come together, the result is the sum of the individual waves. The principle of linear superposition applies to any number of waves, but to simplify matters just consider what happens when two waves come together. When the waves come together, what happens? The result is that the waves are superimposed: they add together, with the amplitude at any point being the addition of the amplitudes of the individual waves at that point. Although the waves interfere with each other when they meet, they continue traveling as if they had never encountered each other. When the waves move away from the point where they came together, in other words, their form and motion is the same as it was before they came together.

Constructive interference Constructive interference occurs whenever waves come together so that they are in phase with each other. This means that their oscillations at a given point are in the same direction, the resulting amplitude at that point being much larger than the amplitude of an individual wave. For two waves of equal amplitude interfering constructively, the resulting amplitude is twice as large as the amplitude of an individual wave.

Destructive interference Destructive interference occurs when waves come together in such a way that they completely cancel each other out. When two waves interfere destructively, they must have the same amplitude in opposite directions. When there are more than two waves interfering the situation is a little more complicated; the net result, though, is that they all combine in some way to produce zero amplitude. In general, whenever a number of waves come together the interference will not be completely constructive or completely destructive, but somewhere in between. It usually requires just the right conditions to get interference that is completely constructive or completely destructive.

Spectrum and dispersion

Visible light, also known as white light, consists of a collection of component colors. These colors are often observed as light passes through a triangular prism. Upon passage through the prism, the white light is separated into its component colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. The separation of visible light into its different colors is known as dispersion. While a light wave travels through a vacuum at a speed of c (3.00 x 108 m/s), it travels through a transparent material at speeds less than c. The index of refraction value (n) provides a quantitative expression of the optical density of a given medium. Materials with higher index of refraction values have a tendency to hold onto the absorbed light energy for greater lengths of time before reemitting it to the interatomic void. The closer the frequency of the light wave matche the resonant frequency of the

electrons of the atoms of a material. The greater the optical density and the greater the index of refraction. A light wave would be slowed down to a greater extent when passing through such a material Index of refraction values are dependent upon the frequency of light. For visible light, the n value does not show a large variation with frequency, but nonetheless it shows a variation. For instance for some types of glass, the n value for frequencies of violet light is 1.53; and the n value for frequencies of red light is 1.51. The absorption and re-emission process causes the higher frequency (lower wavelength) violet light to travel slower through crown glass than the lower frequency (higher wavelength) red light. It is this difference in n value for the varying frequencies (and wavelengths) that causes the dispersion of light by a triangular prism. Violet light, being slowed down to a greater extent by the absorption and reemission process, refracts more than red light. Upon entry of white light at the first boundary of a triangular prism, there will be a slight separation of the white light into the component colors of the spectrum. Upon exiting the triangular prism at the second boundary, the separation becomes even greater and ROYGBV is observed in its splendor.

R- Red

O- Orange

Y- Yellow

G-Green

B-Blue

V-Violet

The amount of overall refraction caused by the passage of a light ray through a prism is often expressed in terms of the angle of deviation ( ). The angle of deviation is the angle made between the incident ray of light entering the first face of the prism and the refracted ray that emerges from the second face of the prism. Because of the different indices of refraction for the different wavelengths of visible light, the angle of deviation varies with wavelength. Colors of the visible light spectrum that have shorter wavelengths (BV) will deviated more from their original path than the colors with longer wavelengths (ROY). The emergence of different colors of light from a triangular prism at different angles leads an observer to see the component colors of visible light separated from each other.

Diffraction

Diffraction involves a change in direction of waves as they pass through an opening or around an obstacle in their path. When light encounters an obstacle in its path, the obstacle blocks the light and tends to cause the formation of a shadow in the region behind the obstacle. Light does not exhibit a very noticeable ability to bend around the obstacle and fill in the region behind it with light. Nonetheless, light does diffract around obstacles. In fact, if you observe a shadow carefully, you will notice that its edges are extremely fuzzy. Interference effects occur due to the diffraction of light around different sides of the object, causing the shadow of the object to be fuzzy. Light diffracting around the right edge of a penny can constructively and destructively interfere with light diffracting around the left edge of the penny. The result is that an interference pattern is created; the pattern consists of alternating rings of light and darkness.

Polarization

Polarized light waves are light waves in which the vibrations occur in a single plane. The process of transforming unpolarized light into polarized light is known as polarization. Polarization occurs in many ways these being by refraction, reflection and a polarization filter.

Unpolarized light can undergo polarization by reflection off of nonmetallic surfaces. The extent to which polarization occurs is dependent upon the angle at which the light approaches the surface and upon the material that the surface is made of. Metallic surfaces reflect light with a variety of vibrational directions; such reflected light is unpolarized. However, nonmetallic surfaces such as asphalt roadways, snowfields and water reflect light such that there is a large concentration of vibrations in a plane parallel to the reflecting surface. A person viewing objects by means of light reflected off of nonmetallic surfaces will often perceive a glare if the extent of polarization is large.

Polarization can also occur by the refraction of light. Refraction occurs when a beam of light passes from one material into another material. At the surface of the two materials, the path of the beam changes its direction. The refracted beam acquires some degree of polarization. Most often, the polarization occurs in a plane perpendicular to the surface. Iceland Spar, a rather rare form of the mineral calcite, refracts incident light into two different paths. The light is split into two beams upon entering the crystal. Subsequently, if an object is viewed by looking through an Iceland Spar crystal, two images will be seen. The two images are the result of the double refraction of light. Both refracted light beams are polarized one in a direction parallel to the surface and the other in a direction perpendicular to the surface. Since these two refracted rays are polarized with a perpendicular orientation, a polarizing filter can be used to completely block one of the images.

The most common method of polarization involves the use of a Polaroid filter. Polaroid filters are made of a special material that is capable of blocking one of the two planes of vibration of an electromagnetic wave. In this sense, a Polaroid serves as a device that filters out one-half of the vibrations upon

transmission of the light through the filter. When unpolarized light is transmitted through a Polaroid filter, it emerges with one-half the intensity and with vibrations in a single plane; it emerges as polarized light.

A Polaroid filter is able to polarize light because of the chemical composition of the filter material. The filter can be thought of as having long-chain molecules that are aligned within the filter in the same direction. During the fabrication of the filter, the long-chain molecules are stretched across the filter so that each molecule is aligned in say the vertical direction. As unpolarized light strikes the filter, the portion of the waves vibrating in the vertical direction are absorbed by the filter. The general rule is that the electromagnetic vibrations that are in a direction parallel to the alignment of the molecules are absorbed. The alignment of these molecules gives the filter a polarization axis. This polarization axis extends across the length of the filter and only allows vibrations of the electromagnetic wave that are parallel to the axis to pass through. Any vibrations that are perpendicular to the polarization axis are blocked by the filter. Thus, a Polaroid filter with its long-chain molecules aligned horizontally will have a polarization axis aligned vertically. Such a filter will block all horizontal vibrations and allow the vertical vibrations to be transmitted On the other hand, a Polaroid filter with its long-chain molecules aligned vertically will have a polarization axis aligned horizontally; this filter will block all vertical vibrations and allow the horizontal vibrations to be transmitted.