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The Talbot Effect and its Use in the Diffractometry of Thin Films

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Abstract

The phenomenon of the shift of the far field diffraction pattern when a small aperature is half-covered with a transparent or partly transmitting film, which has been called the “Talbot effect”, has been studied in detail for dielectric and metallic films. The physical shifts of the central maximum and the first minimum, as well as the variation of relative irradiances at fixed points in the far field have been specifically investigated. Experimental results have been presented to confirm this phenomenon and to illustrate the application of the effect to the measurement of thickness of thin barium stearate and aluminium films. The results show that the effect can be used for the determination of thickness of thin films of known optical constants.

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An abstract of part of this work appeared in Preprints of the ICO Conference on Optical Methods in Scientific and Industrial Measurements, Tokyo, 25–30 August, 1974. pp. 138–139. S. C. Som was on leave from the Department of Applied Physics, Calcutta University, Calcutta-9, when this work was completed.

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Som, S.C., Kundu, P.C. & Roy, A.K. The Talbot Effect and its Use in the Diffractometry of Thin Films. J Opt 5, 91–97 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03548975

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03548975

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