Wave properties of light

If you ask an average person about what he knows the properties of light, then no doubt, everyone will immediately call "reflection". Indeed, perhaps there is no such child who would not like to play on a sunny day with a small mirror that casts rays - the so-called solar bunny. Surely, many will remember how great it was to play with shadows - this is also a manifestation of one of the properties of light. But for some it will be a revelation that the waves that allow radio and television to reproduce the broadcasts are the same light. There are no miracles - everything is easy to explain. The reason for this confusion is the wave properties of light.

Any substance whose atoms are in an excited state generate radiation of an electromagnetic nature. The mechanism is simple: any particles tend to a state of energy balance, so they emit excessive energy. It can be heat, visible light or some other kind of radiation. What is light? If we consider the entire spectrum, then the visible radiation occupies frequencies in the interval 790-390 THz. The peculiarity of this radiation lies in the fact that it has both the wave properties of light and the properties of particles (corpuscular). Who is interested in technical innovations, for sure, heard the expression "photon engine". From its nozzles, particles of light break out - photons, providing the appearance of a pulse. How, then, to understand the "wave properties of light," if we are talking about particles? The fact is that the light we see is dual: it can be represented both in the form of radiation, and in the form of a stream of particles. A number of experiments carried out make it possible to assert that both points of view are correct.

When the wave properties of light are considered, interference is necessarily mentioned. It is based on a change in the brightness (intensity) of areas of the surface illuminated by several light beams. It was interference that allowed Jung to conduct his famous experiment with two slits.

The next property is diffraction. There are several explanations for this phenomenon, but for a person unfamiliar with optics, the following explanation can be given: diffraction is a bypass of an obstacle on the way by a wave. That is, theoretically, the radiation flux from a point source can never "touch" the shadow area of an object, formed by two vectors, but in practice this assumption is violated. "Guilty" in this is exactly the diffraction. Sometimes it is seen as one of the manifestations of interference, which is not an error.

The phenomenon of refraction is widely known. It can be observed at home: it is enough to pour water into a glass and place a spoon there. If we now look at the spoon, then in the place of the air-water transition there is a noticeable distortion, which breaks the geometric regularity. This is due to the refraction of the rays at the boundary of two different media.

Have you ever wondered why, with a sunny winter day, the brightness of the light is so high that you have to wear glasses with darkened glasses? The reason for this is the reflection of the rays from the white surface formed by the snow. Part of the waves changes the direction of their movement to the opposite because of the interaction with the surface.

To study the behavior of particles in quantum processes, an optical lattice is used. If several beams of the laser parallel to direct in one direction, and they counter - the other rays, then in the intervals there will be an energy potential. The surrounding neutral atoms are concentrated in its minima, forming a semblance of a crystal lattice. By varying the frequency of the rays, the angle between them, or the radiated power, it is possible to control the behavior of these atoms.