GRATING SPECTROMETER

Group Members: Arra Sriya (16110021)

Jai Parmar (16110065)
Jitesh Mittal (16110067)
Section: 4
Date of experiment: 17/10/2017
Date of submission: 27/10/2017
Objective:
Calculation of the wavelength of a polychromatic light and also find the angular dispersive
power of the diffraction grating.
Apparatus:
 Prism
 Diffraction Grating
 Polychromatic light source
 Magnifying glass
 Collimator
 Turntable
 Telescope
Theory:
An arrangement consisting of a large number of equidistant parallel narrow slits of equal
width separated by equal opaque portions is known as a diffraction grating. A diffraction
grating is an optical component with a periodic, which splits and diffracts light into several
beams travelling in different directions. The directions of these beams depend on the spacing
of the grating and the wavelength of the light so that the grating acts as the dispersive
element. It is based on the principle of diffraction (When a light wave strikes an obstacle it
bends around its corners and edges which causes it to spread in the geometrical shadow of the
obstacle) and further the diffraction grating uses the principle of interference to separate a
spectrum into its component colours.
In this experiment, there is an arrangement of a large number of parallel slits of the same
width which are separated by equal opaque spaces that is usually known as diffraction
grating. Each slits has a width of e and separated by an opaque space of width b. suppose that
the number of parallel slits are N, then the quantity (e+b) is called the grating element. And
N=1/ (e+b) is called the number of slits per unit length. In the diffraction pattern the principal
maxima looks extremely sharp together with weak secondary maxima in between the
principal maxima.
For polychromatic incident light falling normally on a plane transmission grating, the
principal maxima for each spectra color are given by

(e+b) sinθ = mλ

m is the order of principal maximum

θ is the angle of diffraction.
The angular dispersive power of the grating is defined as the rate of change of the angle of
the diffraction with the change in wavelength. It is obtained by

dθ/dλ = m/(e+b) cosθ

Procedure:
 The grating is set for normal incidence. The slit is illuminated by mercury vapour vamp.
The telescope is brought in a line with the collimator and the direct image of the slit is
made to coincide with the vertical cross wire.
 Make one of the cross wires on the telescope vertical and open the slit to an appropriate
width. Check that horizontal crosswire cuts the image of the slit approximately into two
equal parts and the vertical crosswire coincides with the light from the slit.
 Turn the telescope to obtain the image of the slit.
 Turn the telescope to both sides to obtain VIBGYOR lines. Note the reading of both the
verniers.
 Calculate the difference in the reading to obtain the diffraction angle. Then from the
equation, number of lines per unit length of the grating can be calculated.
 Telescope is moved to make the cross-wire coincide with each line of the spectrum.
 Note the readings of both the sides with precision and accuracy.
 Then calculate the wavelength of each colour.
Experimental Data:

MSD 10 units in 30 divisions

VSD 10 units in 10 divisions

Least Count = 20 seconds

Band αA αB

M.S.R. V.S.R. Total (degree) M.S.R. V.S.R. Total (degree)

Violet 70 5 70.08333 250 11 250.1833

Indigo 69 2 69.03333 249 16 249.2667

Blue 67 11 67.18333 247 35 247.5833

Green 66 16 66.26667 245 58 245.9667

Yellow 65 1 65.01667 244 57 244.95

Orange 64 51 64.85 244 27 244.45

Red 63 59 63.98333 243 50 243.8333

TABLE 1: table for αA and αB

 Band α’
A α’
B

M.S.R. V.S.R. Total (degree) M.S.R. V.S.R. Total (degree)

Violet 93 55 93.91667 273 54 273.9

Indigo 94 31 94.51667 274 50 274.8333

Blue 96 26 96.43333 276 43 276.7167

Green 97 55 97.91667 278 4 278.0667

Yellow 98 55 98.91667 279 1 279.0167

Orange 99 30 99.5 279 44 279.7333

Red 100 1 100.0167 280 12 280.2

TABLE 2: table for αA’ and αB’

Calculations and Error Analysis:
Number of lines per inch=15000

Number of lines per meter, N=1/(e+b)=590551.1811

θA=(αA’-αA)/2 and θB=(αB’-αB)/2

θ=(θA+θB)/2
∆θ=|(θA-θB)|/2 and take ∆θ=L.C./2 for θA=θB

Band θA=(αA’-αA)/2 θB=(αB’-αB)/2 θ=(θA+θB)/2 ∆θ=|(θA-θB)|/2

(degree) (degree) (degree) (radian)

Violet 11.91667 11.85833 11.8875 0.000509

Indigo 12.74167 12.78333 12.7625 -0.00036

Blue 14.625 14.56667 14.595835 0.000509

Green 15.825 16.05 15.9375 -0.00196

Yellow 16.95 17.03333 16.991665 -0.00073

Orange 17.325 17.64167 17.483335 -0.00276

Red 18.01667 18.18333 18.1 -0.00145

TABLE 3:table for θA,θB,θ and ∆θ

(e+b) sin θ =∓ m λ
e+b=1/N=1.6933✕10-6 m
since, (e+b) sin θ =m λ
taking log and then differentiating we get the equation: d λ = λ cot θ d θ
As two vernier scales are there, Therefore, dλ = 2 λ cotθ dθ
And the angular dispersive power is given by = dθ/dλ = m/(e+b)cosθ

Band Sin θ λ(nm) ∆λ=(e+b)Cosθ∆θ (nm) Dispersive Power dθdλ(rad/nm)

Violet 0.205991 348.8109 0.84351 0.000302

Indigo 0.22091 374.0746 -0.6005 0.000303

Blue 0.251999 426.7183 0.83418 0.000305

Green 0.274589 464.9701 -3.1971 0.000307

Yellow 0.292233 494.8472 -1.1777 0.000309

Orange 0.300428 508.7254 -4.4633 0.00031

Red 0.310676 526.0788 -2.341 0.000311

TABLE 4: table for wavelength and angular dispersive power.

Results and Discussions:

The different wavelengths of these seven colours are as follows:-
Violet=348.8109 nm
Indigo= 374.0746 nm
Blue= 426.7183 nm
Green= 464.9701 nm
Yellow=494.8472 nm
Orange=508.7254 nm
Red= 526.0788 nm

Precautions:
 The telescope, collimator and the spectrometer should be at the same level so that the
image of the slit is clearly observed.
 The grating element should be fixed to the spectrometer by the screws to observe the
image of the slit and minimise the error.
 The angular difference should be measured properly.
Notes and References:
Lab manual