Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-2/section-b/b6/a/solution
Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge 2019 Paper 2 Section B B6 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Draw the Fabry–Pérot etalon with parallel mirrors and an incident beam making internal angle with their normal. Every emerging transmitted contribution has undergone one more internal round trip than its predecessor.
The extra internal path is , but successive contributions leave at laterally separated points, a distance apart. Comparing their phases on the same outgoing wavefront subtracts the path projection . Their net optical path difference in air isHence, in the reflection-phase convention implicit in the supplied transmission formula,For a gap of refractive index , replace by and use the vacuum wavelength. Coating reflection phases can add a round-trip offset; the expression above assumes that offset is absorbed in the resonance order, or is zero modulo as in the stated ideal model.
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