Knittel Z. Optics of Thin Films

Wykeham Publications Ltd., 1971 - 548 p.
ISBN: 0-471-49531-XThe anomalous behaviour of matter if it is made to exist in the form of a thin film is an established phenomenon of modern physics which is being exploited both in basic research into the properties of matter and for industrial applications, once the anomalies are under control.Optics enjoys the historical priority of being the first branch of physics to have been confronted with a thin film anomaly, in the form of coloured reflection from soap bubbles, air wedges between glass surfaces and from fatty patches on water. The earliest descriptions of these phenomena were independently published in the 17th century by several natural philosophers: Joannes Marcus Marci (1648), Robert Boyle (1663), F. M. Grimaldi (1665), Robert Hooke (1665). No explanation was given of these colours apart from some vague speculations in terms of reflection and refraction.