Brett Scheiner

Casey Robinson

Phys 458

Lab section 1

Diffraction

We observe the effects of aperture size, shape, and distance on diffraction patterns. We observe

the difference between near field Fresnel diffraction and far field Fraunhofer diffraction patterns. We

report that the Fraunhofer diffraction patterns obtained for the circular apertures are in good agreement

with the expected geometry obtained from the J1 Bessel Function. We also observed the Fresnel zones

expected in the near field diffraction patterns. The diffraction patterns from two diffraction gratings

were imaged and we obtaind the diffracting aperture shape by taking a 2-D Fourier transform of the

pattern.

We observed the diffraction of a 633nm laser through two circular slits of width .030 inches

and .010 inches and one slit of width .015 inches. For these apertures we observed both Fresnel and

Fraunhofer diffraction. Fraunhofer diffraction patterns are obtained when the light passing through the

aperture satisfies the condition R> a^2/λ, otherwise the pattern will exhibit properties of Fresnel

diffraction. We processed the images of the Fraunhofer diffraction patterns in mathematica to create 2

and 3-d intensity contours of the diffraction image.

The Fraunhofer Diffraction Pattern from the .030 inch circular slit is shown in figure 1 with its

intensity contours. We find this result to be in agreement with the general shape of diffraction from a

circular aperture as given by the J1 Bessel function (Figure 2). The diffraction pattern of the .010 inch

circular slit, shown in figure 3, yields a similar result except the central maximum is greater and the

pattern does not have as great of a spread.

Figure 1. The image of the Fraunhofer Diffraction pattern of the .030 inch circular slit with its intensity

plots.

Figure 2. The J1 Bessel Function evaluated in Mathematica.

Figure 3. The image of the Fraunhofer Diffraction pattern of the .010 inch circular slit with its intensity

plots.

We also obtained the expected Fraunhofer diffraction pattern for the .015 inch wide slit. The slit

was placed horizontally to obtain the pattern shown in figure 4.

 Figure 4. The image of the Fraunhofer Diffraction pattern of the .015 inch wide slit with its intensity

plots.

The Fresnel diffraction patterns for the .010 inch circular slit were observed using the CCD

directly behind the slit. Our image, shown in figure 5, clearly shows the Fresnel zones that we expected

to observe.

Figure 5. The Fresnel diffraction pattern from the .010 inch circular slit.

We also observed Fresnel diffraction through a variable aperture circular slit. The diffraction

observed is shown in figure 6.

 Figure 6. The Fresnel diffraction from the variable width circular slit as it is opened. The top left has

the smallest width and the bottom picture has the largest.

We also observed Fraunhofer diffraction through two diffraction gratings. The diffraction

patterns are shown in figure 7.

 Figure 7. The diffraction patterns from the two gratings.

To determine the shape of the diffracting aperture we take the 2-D Fourier transform of the image using

the following Mathematica code:

yourfile="3.jpg"
SetDirectory[$HomeDirectory]
SetDirectory["/Users/brettscheiner/Desktop"]
FileNames[]
shift[pic_]:=Module[{tmp,tmp2,j,k},
{j,k}=Dimensions[pic];tmp=RotateLeft[pic,Floor[j/2]];tmp2=Transpose[RotateLeft[Transpose[tmp],Floor[k/2
]]]]
picture=Import[yourfile]
pixels=picture[[1]]
Dimensions[pixels]
tpix=Transpose[pixels,{2,3,1}]
Dimensions[tpix]
redpix=tpix[[1]];
greenpix=tpix[[2]];
bluepix=tpix[[3]];
choosecolor=redpix+greenpix+bluepix;
Dimensions[choosecolor]
Plus@@Flatten[choosecolor]
ListDensityPlot[choosecolor,Mesh->False,AspectRatio->Automatic]
ft=Fourier[choosecolor];
sft=shift[ft];


{xlim,ylim}=Dimensions[ft]
centerx=Floor[xlim/2];
centery=Floor[ylim/2];
cut[i_,j_,n_]:=If[(i-centerx)^2+(j-centery)^2<n^2,1,0];
radius=30;
rft=Table[Table[sft[[i,j]] cut[i,j,radius],{i,1,xlim},{j,1,ylim}]];
maxscale=Take[Sort[Flatten[Abs[rft]]],-400][[1]]
ListDensityPlot[Abs[sft],Mesh->False,AspectRatio->Automatic,PlotRange->{0,maxscale}]
ListDensityPlot[Abs[rft],Mesh->False,AspectRatio->Automatic,PlotRange->{0,maxscale}]
ListDensityPlot[Re[InverseFourier[shift[rft]]],Mesh->False,AspectRatio->Automatic]

The images of the diffracting aperture obtained from the code are shown in figure 8.
 Figure 8. The image of the diffracting apertures obtained from the 2-D Fourier of the diffraction

pattern.

We were able to observe diffraction patterns resulting from Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction

through circular and slit apertures. We also were able to observe the Fraunhofer diffraction of two

diffraction gratings. We were able to determine the diffracting aperture geometry in these gratings by

taking the 2-D Fourier transform of the image of the diffraction pattern.