Problem 13

  A nonreflective coating of magnesium fluoride (n = 1.38) covers the glass (n = 1.52 of a camera lens. Assuming that the coating prevents reflection of a yellow-green light (wavelength in vacuum = 565 nm), determine the minimum nonzero thickness that the coating can have.

SOLUTION:
We want to choose the film thickness such that destructive interference occurs between the light reflected from the air-film interface (call it wave 1) and from the film-lens interface (call it wave 2). For destructive interference to occur, the phase difference between the two waves must be an odd multiple of half-wavelengths.
You can think of the phases of the two waves as second hands on a clock; as the light travels, the hands tick-tock around the clock. Consider the clocks on the two waves in question. As both waves travel to the air-film interface, their clocks both tick-tock the same time-no phase difference. When wave 1 is reflected from the air-film boundary, its clock is set forward 30 seconds; i.e., if the hand was pointing toward 12, it's now pointing toward 6. It's set forward because the index of refraction of air is smaller than that of the film.
Now wave 1 pauses while wave two goes into and out of the film. The clock on wave 2 continues to tick as it travels in the film-tick, tock, tick, tock.... Clock 2 is set forward 30 seconds when it hits the film-lens interface because the index of refraction of the film is smaller than that of the lens. Then as it travels back through the film, its clock still continues ticking. When wave 2 gets back to the air-film interface, the two waves continue side by side, both their clocks ticking; there is no change in phase as they continue on their merry way.
So, to recap, since both clocks were shifted forward at the two different interfaces, there was no net phase shift due to reflection. There was also no phase shift as the waves travelled into and out from the air-film interface. The only phase shift occured as clock 2 ticked inside the film.
Call the thickness of the film t. Then the total distance travelled by wave 2 inside the film is 2t, if we assume the light entered pretty much normal to the interface. This total distance should equal to half the wavelength of the light in the film (for the minimum condition; it could also be 3/2, 5/2, etc., but that wouldn't be the minimum thickness) since the hand of the clock makes one revolution for each distance of one wavelength the wave travels (right?).

$$2t = \frac{\lambda_{film}}{2}.$$

The wavelength in the film is

$$\lambda_{film} = \frac{\lambda_{air}}{n} = \frac{565 nm}{1.38}$$

$$\lambda_{film} = 409 nm.$$

Hence, the thickness should be

$$t = \frac{\lambda_{film}}{4} = 102 nm .$$