ABSTRACT
The wave nature of electromagnetic radiation provides a basis to describe a medium in which transverse waves propagate and from which the phenomena of interference, diffraction and polarisation can be derived from the Maxwell electromagnetic theory of light in 1880. Fraunhofer diffraction can be produced by using a lens combination to produce a parallel beam of light from a point source and to focus the beam onto a screen after passing through the slits. The problem of calculating the intensity of a particular diffraction peak is related simply to adding sine waves of different amplitude and phase but of the same wavelength. X-ray diffraction has proved to be invaluable in the evaluation of the microstructure of materials because it is possible to predict the diffracted beam positions with considerable accuracy together with their relative intensities. Since electromagnetic radiation is emitted when a charged particle is accelerated, X-rays can be produced by deliberately accelerating electrons.
