Module: I

Diffraction
(Topics)
Introduction,, Fraunhoffer diffraction at single
g slit,, diffraction
due to N-slits (diffraction grating), highest possible orders,
determination of wavelength of light with a plane
transmission
i i grating,
i resolving
l i power off a grating,
i dispersive
di i
power of a grating
 Module I
(Diffraction)

Fraunhoffer diffraction
Introduction
* Diffraction - an understanding
* Differences between diffraction and interference
* Types of diffraction and differences between them
> Fraunhoffer
au o e ddiffraction
act o
> Fresnel diffraction
at single slit due to N-slits

Grating
* Diffraction from a single
g slit * Introduction
* Types of gratings
* Locating the dark fringes
* Highest possible orders
* Intensity in the diffraction pattern
* Intenstiy maxima in the single-slit pattern
* Width of the single-slit pattern
Transmission grating
* Determination of wavelength
* Dispersion
* Resolving power
 

Introduction

The term “diffraction” refers to a class of interference effects occurs when light strikes a
barrier that has an aperture or an edge
Examples
1. Shadow obtained by placing a razor blade halfway between a pinhole, illuminated by
monochromatic light, a screen
 

2. The colours of iridescent butterflies

 

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3. The “rainbow” one can see reflected from the surface of a compact disc (CD)
 

Differences between diffraction and interference

There is no fundamental difference between interference and diffraction as such. But
there are some differences between them as follows

Diffraction Interference
Involves waves from a large number of Involves waves from a small number of
sources sources, usually two

It occurs only when light encounters a No specific condition is required for its
barrier whose dimensions are comparable occurrence, but, a sustained pattern can
to its wavelength be obtained only when the two waves
are coherent

The intensity distribution among the The intensity distribution among the
bright fringes is non-uniform. Most of the bright fringes is uniform
energy is concentrated at the principal
maximum (central peak)

The centre of the pattern is always a bright If the pattern contains a centre, it can be
band a bright or a dark based on the optical
conditions at that point

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Types of diffraction
Diffraction is of two types; and the differences between them are as follows

Fraunhofer (far-field) diffraction Fresnel (near-field) diffraction

The source, obstacle and screen are far
enough apart that all lines from the source
to the obstacle and all lines from the
obstacle to a given point on the screen to
be parallel
Both the point source and the screen are
relatively close to the obstacle forming the
diffraction pattern

A converging lens is required to image the Such lens is not required to image the pattern
pattern on a nearby screen on a nearby screen

It is usually simpler to analyze in detail It is usually difficult to analyze in detail

Fraunhofer diffraction from a single slit

(a) Formation of the diffraction pattern

When plane-wave (parallel ray) monochromatic light emerges from a long, narrow slit,
diffraction pattern is formed i.e., the beam spreads out vertically after passing through the slit

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(b) Description of the diffraction pattern

 The diffraction pattern consists of a central bright band bordered by alternating dark and
bright bands
 About 85% of the power in the transmitted beam is in the central bright band
 The intensity decreases rapidly if moved away from the central bright band to on either
side of it
 The central bright band may be much broader than the width of the slit
 The width of the central bright band is inversely proportional to the width of the slit
 In general, the smaller the width of the slit, the broader the entire diffraction pattern

(c) Locating the dark fringes

Let a monochromatic light of wavelength ‘λ’ on passing through a slit of width ‘a’
undergoes diffraction. Suppose the diffraction pattern is caught on a screen at a distance ‘x’ from
the slit

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2sin 

θ or
sin
2 

θ

Side view of a horizontal slit. When the distance to the screen is much greater than the slit width
the rays from a distance apart may be considered parallel

First two narrow strips are considered, one just below the top edge of the slit and one at its
centre. Suppose a point ‘P’ in the diffraction pattern on the screen. The path difference between
the waves from the two narrow strips to point ‘P’ is

Here, θ is the angle between the perpendicular to the slit and a line from the centre of the slit
to P. Suppose , , destructive interference of the waves takes place. Similarly, light

waves from any two strips along the slit width separated by a distance of undergo destructive
interference.
Thus, a dark fringe occurs whenever

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 θsin
=

tan θ±
=

x= =
a
or
ym
m

Here plus-or-minus (±) sign indicates that there are symmetric dark fringes above and below the
centre of the diffraction pattern
By using the above argument, it can be shown that a dark fringe occurs whenever

for narrow strips separated by (a/4), (a/6) and so on

Thus, dark fringes can be located at (where m = ±1, ±2, ±3, etc.)

Usually (λ/a) is very small and hence sin θ also very small. Thus, it can be written as sin θ ≈ θ

Thus, (where m = ±1, ±2, ±3,…)

If the vertical distance of the mth dark band from the centre of the pattern is ym, then
For small ‘θ’ tan θ ≈ θ

∴ (for ym≪ x)

(d) Intensity in the single-slit pattern

(Phasor diagram method)

The phasor-addition method is used, here, to derive an expression for the intensity
distribution for the single-slit diffraction pattern
(Figure caption) Using phasor diagrams to find the amplitude of the field in single-slit
diffraction. Each phasor represents the field from a single strip within the slit

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Suppose a plane wave front at the slit subdivided into a large number of strips. Let P be a
point on a distant screen at an angle θ from the normal to the slit plane. To superpose the
contributions of the Huygens  wavelets from all the strips at P, a phasor is used to represent the
sinusoidally varying field E o from each individual strip.
The
 magnitude of the vector sum of the phasors at each point P is the amplitude EP of the
2
total E o field at that point. The intensity at P is proportional to E P
At the centre of the diffraction pattern, there are negligible path differences for x >> a. Thus,
the phasors are all essentially in phase. Suppose E0 represents the resultant amplitude at the
centre of the pattern. Consider wavelets are arriving from different strips at point P.
Because of the differences in path length, there are phase differences between wavelets
coming from adjacent strips. From the phasor diagram, by applying the geometrical technique it
can be shown that
  β 
 sin  2  
EP = EO    
 β 
  2  

where β is the total phase difference between the wave from the top strip and the wave from the
bottom strip. If Io is the intensity in the straight ahead direction where θ = 0 and β = 0, then the
intensity I at any point is
2
  β 
 sin  2  
I = I O               ( Diff  1)
 β 
  2  
 
Since, the path difference between the rays from the top of the slit and the bottom of the
slit is ‘a sin θ’, the phase difference ‘β’ can be written as
2π
 a sin 
λ

  π a sin  
2

 sin   
  λ            ( Diff  2)
I = IO  
  π a sin   
  
  λ  

This equation (Diff - 2) expresses the intensity directly in terms of the angle θ. The above
equation can graphically be represented as follows

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Intensity veersus angle in single sliit diffractionn. The valuees ‘m’ of label intensityy minima
given byy Eq. (1). M
Most of the wave
w powerr goes into thhe central intensity
i peaak (betweenn the m = 1
and m = – 1 intenssity minima))

n are the plaaces where I = 0. By suubstituting I = 0, it can be shown

The darrk fringes inn the pattern
that
λ
sin   m (m = ±11, ±2, ±3,…
…)
a
i.e., the positions oof dark fringges

Inteensity maxxima in the single-slit pattern

p

2
The equuation (1) i.e.,   β 
 sin  2  
I = IO    
 β 
  2  

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m

can be used to calculate the positions of the peaks or intensity maxima and the intensities at these
peaks. The peaks may be expected to occur where the sine function reaches the value ± 1 –
namely, where β = ± π, ± 3π, ± 5π, or in general

β ≈ ± (2m + 1) π (where m = 0, 1, 2, etc.)

It is approximately correct, but because of the factor in the denominator of equation

(1), the maxima don’t occur precisely at these points. Setting of the derivative of equation (1)
with respect to ߚ equal to zero to find the maxima and minima results a transdential equation that
has to be solved numerically

The intensities at the “side maxima” or “secondary maxima” are found by substituting the
β ≈ (2m ± 1) π values into equation (1)

Thus,

where Im is the intensity of mth “side maximum” and Io is the intensity of the central
maximum

(e) Width of the single slit pattern

For small angles the angular spread of the diffraction pattern is inversely proportional to
the slit width ‘a’ or more precisely, to the ratio of ‘a’ to the wavelength ‘λ’ i.e., (a/λ).

When ‘a’ is less than λ, the central maximum spreads over 180o and the fringe pattern is
not seen at all

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N

Diffraction due to N-slits

Suppose a diffraction pattern produced by ‘N’ very narrow slits. Assume that each slit is
narrow in comparison to the wavelength, so its diffraction pattern spreads out nearly uniformly.

 The maxima in the pattern occur at the same positions irrespective of the total number (N) of
slits if spacing (d) is the same i.e., the positions of the maxima in the pattern depends on the
spacing between the adjacent slits, but, not on the number of slits involved
 The intensity with ‘N’ slits is zero whenever Φ (the phase difference from the adjacent
sources) is an integral multiple of , except when Φ is a multiple of 2π.
 Thus, there are several minima i.e., (N-1) minima for every maximum.
 There are small secondary intensity maxima between the minima; these become smaller in
comparison to the principal maxima as N increases
 The greater the value of N, the narrower the principal maxima become
 From an energy stand point the total power in the entire pattern is proportional to N
 The height of each principal maximum is proportional to N2
 The width of each principal maximum must be proportional to

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GratingN
constan

L
M N
M

Diffraction grating is an array of a large number of parallel, equidistant slits having the same
width

A portion of a transmission diffraction grating. The separation between the centers of adjacent
slits is d
Gratings are of two types namely transmission gratings and reflection gratings
Gratings can be made by using a diamond point to scratch many equally spaced grooves on a
glass or metal surface or by photographic reduction a pattern of black and white stripes on paper.
For a grating, slits are often called rulings or lines

In a grating, the number of slits per unit length is called the grating constant (N). If a grating of
length ‘L’ cm contains ‘M’ slits in total then

The spacing ‘d’ between centres of adjacent slits is called the “grating spacing”. The value of
grating spacing (d) is the reciprocal of the number of slits per unit length (i.e., grating constant,
N)

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 Highest possible orders

For a grating the positions of the maxima are given by

d sin θ = mλ (where m = 0, ±1, ±2, ±3, ...)

Since the limits of sin θ are – 1 and + 1, it can be written as ± d = mλ or m = ±

∴ Highest possible orders =

Thus, for a grating, from the ratio between the “grating spacing, d” and the wavelength of the
light “λ” used, the highest possible orders can be predicted

Determination of wavelength using a plane transmission grating

The light on passing through a transmission diffraction grating forms a diffraction

pattern. From the analysis of the pattern one can determine the wavelength of the transmitted
light.

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 Suppose a plane monochromatic wave is incident normally on a diffraction grating.
Assume far-field (or) Fraunhofer conditions; i.e., the pattern is formed on a screen that is far
enough away that all rays emerging from the grating and going to a particular point on the screen
can be considered to be parallel. Since, the positions of the principal maxima are given by

d sin θ = mλ (where m = 0, ±1, ±2, ±3, ...) ------------------- (Diff - 3)

If the grating contains a large number (hundreds or thousands) of slits then on

illumination by a beam of parallel rays of monochromatic light forms the pattern containing a
series of very sharp lines. Thus, in this case, the angle of deviation can be measured very
precisely. The m = ±1 lines are called the first-order lines, the m = ±2 lines are called the second-
order lines, and so on
For a given grating, spacing (d) is a constant and can be determined using the relation
1
d=
N
where ‘N’ indicates the number of slits per unit length of the grating
For a given value of m, the sine of the angles of deviation (θ) of the maxima are determined
by measuring the perpendicular distance (D) of the screen from the grating and ym, the distance
of the mth order maximum from the centre of the pattern and using the relation

sin =
D +

Then, the wavelength of the incident light can be computed by substituting the m, d and sin θ
values in the equation (Diff - 3)

Note
If the grating is illuminated by white light with a continuous distribution of wavelengths,
each value of m corresponds to a continuous spectrum in the pattern. For a given value of m,
long wavelengths (the red end of the spectrum) lie at larger angles i.e., are deviated more from

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the straight-ahead direction than do the shorter wavelengths at the violet end of the spectrum.
From the equation d sin θ = mλ it is clear that the sines of the deviation angles of the maxima are
proportional to the ratio , for substantial deviation to occur, the grating spacing ‘d’ should be of
the same order of magnitude as the wavelength ‘λ’

Dispersive power (D)

The dispersive power (D) of a diffraction grating is a measure of the angular separation
(Δθ) of the lines it produces for two wavelengths differing by (Δλ)
The SI unit for D is the degree per meter or the radian per meter

An expression for dispersion (D)

The angular separation dθ of two different wavelengths of light differing by dλ can be

obtained by differentiating the grating equation

d sin θ  m λ
that is, d (d sin θ)  d (m λ)
d cos θ dθ  m dλ
dθ m
  D
dλ d cos θ
dθ
The ratio is known as angular dispersion
dλ
Thus, to achieve higher dispersion one must use a grating of smaller grating spacing (d)
and work in a higher-order (m)

Resolving power (Chromatic resolving power) (R)

The resolving power (R) of a diffraction grating is a measure of its ability to make the
emission lines of two close wavelengths distinguishable i.e., the minimum wavelength difference
Δ λ that can be distinguished by it

An expression for resolving power (or) chromatic resolving power (R)

Suppose light is incident normally on a grating with N number of slits. Two different
wavelengths give diffraction maxima at slightly different angles.
Suppose these two wavelengths can be distinguished as two separate peaks if the maximum
of one coincides with the first minimum of the other.
The mth-order maximum occurs when the phase difference for adjacent slits Φ = 2πm
The first minimum beside that maximum occurs when the phase difference for adjacent slits
 2π 
 '   2πm   here N is the number of slits
 N
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The phase difference is also given by

2π
d  d sin θ
λ
where d is the grating spacing
So the angular interval dθ corresponding to a small increment dΦ in the phase shift can
be obtained from the differential of the above equation
2π
d  d cos θ dθ
λ
2π
When d  , this corresponds to the angular interval dθ between a maximum and the first
N
adjacent minimum

Thus, 2π 2π d cos θ dθ

N λ
λ
  d cos θ dθ - - - - - - - - - - - (Diff - 4)
N

From grating equation, d sin θ = mλ (where m = 0, ±1, ±2,...)

The angular spacing dθ between maxima for two slightly different wavelengths can be
obtained by differentiating the grating equation

d cos θ dθ  m dλ - - - - - - - - - - - (Diff - 5)
Since, the limit or resolution is reached when these two angular spacings are equal
From (Diff - 4) and (Diff - 5) λ
 m dλ
N
λ
  Nm
dλ
If Δλ is small, dλ can be replaced by Δλ and the resolving power R is
λ
R  Nm
λ
The greater the number of slits N, the better the resolution; also, the higher the order m of
the diffraction-pattern maximum that is used, the better the resolution

‘R’ is mere a number and has no units

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