An Undergraduate Experiment to Verify Cylindrical Wavefront Emission from Light Emitting Diodes

Authors

  • P. K. Mishra Department of Electronics, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
  • A. S. Chauhan Department of Electronics, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
  • H. V. Rustagi Department of Electronics, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
  • Inderpreet Singh Department of Electronics, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
  • P. Arun Department of Electronics, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
  • Nimmi Singh Department of Physics, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
  • Kuldeep Kumar Department of Physics, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14738/aivp.132.18651

Keywords:

Wavefront, Light Emitting Diode, Intensity

Abstract

In this work, a simple experiment has been described to study and verify the occurrence of cylindrical wavefront, which are left untouched in the undergraduate levels. The experiment setup comprises of LEDs as the source of light and light dependent resistor (LDR) as the detector. The variation between the light intensity (detected by LDR) as a function of its distance from the LED has been studied. The light intensity at the detector is found to decay as we move away from the LED source. The data points are then fitted to mathematical equations and it is observed that the light decay is not only governed by distance but also by the atmospheric conditions. The equation points to the occurrence of cylindrical wavefront in the emitted light. The same experiment is repeated with three different colored LEDs (red, green and blue) and a similar trend is obtained in all the cases. The work introduces students to concepts rarely mentioned in the text books.

References

Born M. and Wolf E., Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference, and Diffraction of Light, (Cambridge University Press, London, 1999).

Young M., Optics and Lasers: An Engineering Physics Approach, (Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013).

Kirchhoff G., Zur Theorie der Lichtstrahlen, Zenodo 1883 (254), p663-695.

Ghatak A., Optics, (Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 1986).

Arun P., Electronics, (Narosa, New Delhi, 2nd Ed., 2011).

Kasap S.O., Optoelectronics and Photonics: Principles and Practices, (Pearson Education, Inc., New Jersey, 2nd Ed., 2013).

Marinho F., Paulucci L., Carvalho C.M., Apolinário F., Measuring light with light dependent resistors: an easy approach for optics experiments, European Journal of Physics, 2019, (40) 035801.

https://www.sunrom.com/download/3190-LDR.pdf.

Downloads

Published

2025-04-25

How to Cite

Mishra, P. K., Chauhan, A. S., Rustagi, H. V., Singh, I., Arun, P., Singh, N., & Kumar, K. (2025). An Undergraduate Experiment to Verify Cylindrical Wavefront Emission from Light Emitting Diodes. European Journal of Applied Sciences, 13(02), 479–485. https://doi.org/10.14738/aivp.132.18651