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Multiple-slit arrangements can be mathematically considered as multiple simple wave sources, if the slits are narrow enough. For light, a slit is an opening that is infinitely extended in one dimension, and this has the effect of reducing a wave problem in 3D-space to a simpler problem in 2D-space.
The standard interpretation of the double slit experiment is that the pattern is a wave phenomenon, representing interference between two probability amplitudes, one for each slit. Low intensity experiments demonstrate that the pattern is filled in one particle detection at a time.
An illuminated slit that is wider than a wavelength produces interference effects in the space downstream of the slit. Assuming that the slit behaves as though it has a large number of point sources spaced evenly across the width of the slit interference effects can be calculated.
Instead it allows definition of features, e.g., brick patterns, which are based on lines spaced at a minimum pitch, in particular, when the lines are near the resolution limit and are generated by the two-beam interference mentioned above. The two-beam interference still dominates the diffraction pattern. [38]
Thus, the interference pattern maps out the difference in phase between the two waves, with maxima occurring when the phase difference is a multiple of 2 π. If the two beams are of equal intensity, the maxima are four times as bright as the individual beams, and the minima have zero intensity.
Double-slit interference fringes can be observed by cutting two slits in a piece of card, illuminating with a laser pointer, and observing the diffracted light at a distance of 1 m. If the slit separation is 0.5 mm, and the wavelength of the laser is 600 nm, then the spacing of the fringes viewed at a distance of 1 m would be 1.2 mm.
Feynman's approach was extended to N-slit interferometers for either single-photon illumination, or narrow-linewidth laser illumination, that is, illumination by indistinguishable photons, by Frank Duarte. [3] [4] The N-slit interferometer was first applied in the generation and measurement of complex interference patterns. [3] [4]
The characteristics of the interference pattern depend on the nature of the light source and the precise orientation of the mirrors and beam splitter. In Fig. 2a, the optical elements are oriented so that S ′ 1 and S ′ 2 are in line with the observer, and the resulting interference pattern consists of circles centered on the normal to M 1 ...