Chapter 27, Problem 52P

A wide beam of laser light with a wavelength of 632.8 nm is directed through several narrow parallel slits, separated by 1.20 mm, and falls on a sheet of photographic film 1.40 m away. The exposure time is chosen so that the film stays unexposed everywhere except at the central region of each bright fringe. (a) Find the distance between these interference maxima. The film is printed as a transparency; it is opaque everywhere except at the exposed lines. Next, the same beam of laser light is directed through the transparency and allowed to fall on a screen 1.40 m beyond. (b) Argue that several narrow, parallel, bright regions, separated by 1.20 mm, appear on the screen as real images of the original slits. (A similar train of thought, at a soccer game, led Dennis Gabor to invent holography.)