One of the simplest and most beautiful naturally occurring patterns can be observed when light is shined through a pair of slightly misaligned periodic structures. This phenomenon, known as the moiré ...

When a laser beam is incident on many small objects such as lycopodium powder, the resulting diffraction pattern is similar to the diffraction pattern of a small circular aperture (Airy's disk pattern ...

When a laser beam is incident on a narrow opaque object such as a fine wire or a strand of hair, the resulting diffraction pattern is similar to the diffraction pattern of a slit of the same width as ...