Application of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and C-method to the study of Fraunhofer diffraction by a metallic ribbon

Abstract

Until the early of nineteenth century the corpuscular theory of light of Newton was largely dominant and the wave theory of Huygens practically abandoned. This is to Thomas Young and Augustin Fresnel that we owe its return in the early nineteenth century to explain the phenomena of diffraction and interference in particular the Young's double-slit experiment. To decide between the wave theory and corpuscular theory, the Paris Sciences Academy had organized a competition in 1819, on the subject of the problem of diffraction. Fresnel won the prize by performing the first calculations of diffraction from the wave theory of light showing that in the middle of the shadow of an opaque circular disc, against all expectations, there is a bright spot called the Poisson spot.