Detection of a cylindrical boundary diffraction wave emanating from a straight edge by light interaction

Abstract

The paper shows that the boundary diffraction wave originating at an edge is an omnidirectional cylindrical wave. The experimental set-up used to demonstrate this property employs a He–Ne laser beam. The beam is split into three beams using a glass plate. One of the beams passes straight through, the second beam passes through the glass plate and the third beam is the reflected beam. It is shown that the interference patterns are observed in all three beams. Analysis of these patterns shows that the boundary diffraction wave originating from the edge is an omnidirectional cylindrical wave. This analysis also provides strong evidence that the boundary diffraction wave travels not only within the beam where it originates but also to the neighboring coherent beam. The energy re-distribution was also shown to be dependent on the wavelength of the incident light beam and hence provides further evidence as to why longer wave lengths disperse more compared to shorter wavelengths in white light diffraction by an edge.