Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-course-of-the-year-4-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/paper-1/section-b/b2/solution
Past exam of the physics course of the year 4 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2013 Paper 1 Section B B2 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
Expand the propagation distance at small angles:The first two terms supply an aperture-independent phase. If the aperture quadratic phase is small, , it too may be dropped from the integrand. The remaining Fraunhofer diffraction amplitude is the aperture's Fourier transform at transverse wavevector , as required.
For slit width and center spacing , adding the two shifted top-hat transforms gives the normalized intensityThe aperture outer half-width is ; its maximum quadratic phase is only about radians at the given wavelength and distance, so the Fraunhofer approximation is excellent. Fringe spacing is and the first single-slit envelope zero is at .
Two finite-width slits: interference fringes, diffraction envelope and shifted side maximum
. Details. The side maximum of a finite-width double-slit pattern shifts slightly inward from . Differentiating the full intensity gives, away from zeros,Its first side maximum is at with . The expected rate is therefore . Poisson shot noise gives signal-to-noise ratio , so one needs counts:Using the common fringe-center approximation instead gives relative intensity and . Both express the same order of exposure; the first uses the true maximum. Dark counts, background subtraction and uncertainty in the reference rate are excluded by the ideal stated noise model.
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