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General Properties of Light. Light as a wave Speed Wave properties: wavelength, frequency, period, speed, amplitude, intensity Electromagnetic wave. EM Spectrum. Diffraction – the bending of waves at an aperture or obstacle. Double-slit pattern of water/sound waves. I peak =4I o.
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General Properties of Light Light as a wave Speed Wave properties: wavelength, frequency, period, speed, amplitude, intensity Electromagnetic wave
Diffraction – the bending of waves at an aperture or obstacle
Ipeak=4Io y q D Iaverage=2Io Interference – double-slit, speckle
Light as a particle • Photon • Energy packet • Photoelectric effect • Double slit- revisited
Double Slit Experiment with Electrons Reducing intensity of the light, so that only one electron arrives at the slits at a time Detections come in lumps = quanta Intensity exhibits interference
Questions? Why do no electrons (or photons) ever arrive at some locations? Clearly How can we get interference when only 1 particle at a time is going through the slits? What does that particle interfere with? Suppose we actually check which slit each particle went through and know with certainty – what happens then? How can this be? Resolution comes from QED with Feynman
How is light produced? • Chemical energy - fire • Electrical energy - lightning • Nuclear energy - stars • Incandescent • Electric discharge – continuous vs discrete spectrum • Fluorescence
Special Properties of Laser Light • Monochromatic • Intense • Pencil beam – collimated • Coherent • Can be cw or pulsed
Prototype Laser • Energy levels • Absorption, spontaneous emission • Stimulated emission • Population inversion • Metastable state • Pump – optical, electron excitation, atom-atom collisions, chemical • Resonant cavity – gain, cavity modes, beam
Types of Lasers • 3-level vs 4-level • Ruby, first, a 3-level pulsed laser • He-Ne, gas, 4-level
CO2 – molecular gas laser • Neodymium – solid-state
Laser Applications • Communications • Coding information, fiber optics
Materials processing • Science