Diffraction

Introduction
When waves pass through a narrow gap, they spread out. This
spreading out is called diffraction. Diffraction is defined as the
spreading of a wave into regions where it would not be seen if it
moved only in straight lines after passing through a narrow slit or past
an edge. Diffraction of a light wave is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Diffraction

Diffraction may also occur at an edge. When light travels through an

aperture or passes the edge of an obstacle, it deviates from the
straight-line direction and appears to spread out. Water also exhibits
diffraction. The fact that light exhibits diffraction is a proof that light has
wave properties. In Figure 2, diffraction is illustrated with two different
sizes of aperture. It can be noted that the extent of the diffraction
depends on the width of the gap compared with the wavelength. The

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 greatest effect occurs when the wavelength is about the same size as
the aperture.

Figure 2: Diffraction at Different Size of Aperture

A. Huygens’ Explanation of Diffraction

When a single drop of water falls into a ripple tank, a circular

wavefront will spread outwards from the disturbance. This behaviour is
explained by Huygens using the wave theory of light. He suggested
that, at any instant, all points on a wavefront could be regarded as a
secondary disturbance, giving rise to their own outward-spreading
circular wavelets. The tangent curve of the wavefronts produced by
the secondary sources gives the new position of the original
wavefront. The construction of a circular wavefront is shown in Figure
3.

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 Figure 3: Construction of a Circular Wavefront

In the case of a plane wavefront, if it is restricted by passing through

an aperture, some of the wavelets forming the wavefront are removed,
and hence the edges of the wavefront are curved. In this case, the
size of the aperture is larger than the wavelength of the wavefront, the
effect of diffraction is relatively small and the wavefront is curved only
at the edges. But, if the size of the aperture is approximately equal to
the wavelength, the wavefront becomes circular, with the centre on
the slit. It can be noted that the wavelength of the wavefront remains
the same during diffraction.

B. Diffraction at Single Slit

Figure 4 shows a plane wavefront diffracted at a single slit of width a.

Each point on the wavefront passing through the slit can be

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 considered to be a source of secondary wavelets. A is a source at the
top edge of the slit and another one is B, at the centre of the slit. B is
at a distance a/2 along the wavefront from A. The two sources
produce wavelets that spread out and the overlapping points create an
interference pattern. Constructive interference creates a bright
fringe in the centre of the pattern. The condition for constructive
interference is that the path difference should be a whole number of
the wavelengths. To either side of the central fringe, there are
directions where the path difference between the waves
from A and B are an odd number of half-wavelengths. This is
called destructive interference and results in dark fringes.

Figure 4: Wavefront Diffracted at a Single Slit

The above explanation can be extended to the whole of the slit. Every
wavelet spreading from the top half of the slit can be paired with the
one coming from a point a/2 below, in the lower half of the slit.
Intensity graphs of the diffraction pattern as a function of the angle θ,

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 at which the light is viewed, is shown in Figure 5 below. It can be
noted that the intensity is concentrated in the central region. A pattern
of dark and bright fringes is also formed along the central region.

Figure 5: Diffraction Pattern

For destructive interference,

This is the condition for the first dark fringe at angle θ. This can be
generalised as,

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 Where n is a whole number and is the order of the dark fringe
counting outwards from the centre.

For light waves, the width of the aperture is very small and hence the
diffraction angle, θ is also very small. When θ is very small (less than
5°),

This approximation does not apply for sound or water waves, where
the diffraction angles are larger and the wavelength may be closer in
magnitude to the width of the slit.

C. Diffraction grating

A diffraction grating is a plate on which there is a very large number of

parallel, identical, very closely spaced slits. If light is incident on this
plate, a pattern of narrow bright fringes is produced, as shown
in Figure 6.

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 Figure 6: Diffraction Grating

Figure 6 shows a parallel beam of monochromatic light incident

normally on a diffraction grating, in which the spacing between
adjacent slits is d. Let us consider the first rays a and b, incident on
adjacent slits as shown in Figure 7.

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 Figure 7: Diffraction Grating

path difference=dsin

Where, θ is the angle at which they emerge.

For constructive interference, the path difference should be an integral

number of wavelength,

Where λ is the wavelength of the monochromatic light used and n is

the integer.

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 When n=0, sin =0 and hence θ=0, and this is called the zero-order
maximum.

When n=1, its called the first-order diffraction maximum, and so on.

D. Summary

 When waves pass through a narrow gap, they spread out. This
spreading out is called diffraction.
 Huygens’ explanation of diffraction: At any instant, all points
on a wavefront could be regarded as secondary disturbance,
giving rise to their own outward-spreading circular wavelets. The
tangent curve of the wavefronts produced by the secondary
sources gives the new position of the original wavefront.
 In diffraction at a single slit, two sources produce wavelets that
spread out and the overlapping points create an interference
pattern.
 A diffraction grating is a plate on which there is a very large
number of parallel, identical, very closely spaced slits.
 For constructive interference, the path difference should be an
integral number of wavelength, d sinӨ=nλ, where n is the order
of diffraction.

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