Resumen de Student Difficulties in Analyzing Thin-Film Interference
Ronald Newburgh, Douglass Goodale
A question we posed in a recent final examination has uncovered a fundamental difficulty for students in understanding destructive interference. The problem stated that glass of index n3was coated with a thin film of a substance with index n2. The question then asked the student to calculate (a) the minimum coating thickness for maximum transmission into the glass and (b) the minimum thickness for minimum transmission into the glass, in both cases for a given wavelength. Questions from students during and after the examination showed that many had a problem in relating the interference to the transmission. We finally concluded that the source of confusion lay with an almost universally used figure in teaching interference in thin films, as well as the omission of the role of the electric field in reflection.
