Scientific papers of C.V. Raman: Volume III : optics

Abstract

This volume presents 65 of C.V. Raman's publications in the field of optics. His celebrated Baroda Lectures (1941) reprinted here is a masterly elucidation of many optical phenomena reflecting forty years of living with light. Here may be found expositions on the geometric theory of Fresnel diffraction, diffraction by a sphere and a circular disc, the study of haloes and coronae, and his discovery of the speckle phenomenon (1919) from observations of the radiant spectrum seen by the eye. Raman's surprising observations on conical refraction, the wave-like character of periodic precipitates, the propagation of light in polycrystalline media, and the remarkable study of mirages, of new relevance today in the context of cosmic mirages formed by gravitational lenses, are to be found in this collection.