In: Physics
White light falls in, near the normal direction, against a thin oil film lying on a glass plate. Two colors with wavelengths of 525nm and 650nm clearly dominate the reflected light. Assume that the refractive index of the oil is 1.25 and the refractive index of the glass is 1.5.
Determine the thickness of the film and the order of interference for the dominant colors.
As, no other wavelength was observed only two constructive waves are made.
Step 1:
for thin films the interference formula is used as below,
but before that one must understand that when a wave travels from rare medium to denser medium it undergoes 1800 phase shift. This, happens here two times.
first when wave travels from air to oil surface
and from oil to glass surface.
so, each time a phase shift of 1800 or happens. (Shown in figure)
Wave travelling in oil has to go extra distance..
hence, only the next wave will be coming after the first as only these two out of other are dominating.
we get after further solvingHence, the thickness of film is 6.72 x 10-7 m and order of interference is 3.7.