Question:

In a single-slit diffraction experiment, the width of the slit is reduced by half. Which of the following needs to be done if the width of the central maxima has to remain the same?

Updated On: Jun 6, 2024
  • Reduce the distance between the slit and screen by half
  • Reduce the distance between the slit and the screen to $\left(\frac{1}{4}\right)^{\text {th }}$ the original separation
  • Double the distance between the slit and the screen
  • No need to do anything, as the width of the central maxima does not depend on the slit width
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The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

Width of central maxima
$\beta=\frac{2 \lambda D}{a}$
Width of central maxima
$=\frac{2 \lambda(D / 2)}{(a / 2)} $
$=\frac{2 \lambda D}{a}$
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Concepts Used:

Wave Optics

  • Wave optics are also known as Physical optics which deal with the study of various phenomena such as polarization, interference, diffraction, and other occurrences where ray approximation of geometric optics cannot be done. Thus, the section of optics that deals with the behavior of light and its wave characteristics is known to be wave optics.
  • In wave optics, the approximation is carried out by utilizing ray optics for the estimation of the field on a surface. Further, it includes integrating a ray-estimated field over a mirror, lens, or aperture for the calculation of the transmitted or scattered field.
  • Wave optics stands as a witness to a famous standoff between two great scientific communities who devoted their lives to understanding the nature of light. Overall, one supports the particle nature of light; the other supports the wave nature.
  • Sir Isaac Newton stood as a pre-eminent figure that supported the voice of particle nature of light, he proposed a corpuscular theory which states that “light consists of extremely light and tiny particles, called corpuscles which travel with very high speeds from the source of light to create a sensation of vision by reflecting on the retina of the eye”.