Diffraction grating (Observing diffraction with a transmission grating)

❖ Monochromatic light from a laser is incident normally on a transmission diffraction grating.

❖ Interference fringes are formed
❖ Calculations done by measuring the angle 𝞱 at which they are formed, rather than measuring their
separation.
❖ Fringes are not equally spaced in diffraction grating and the angles are much greater than with
double slits .
❖ The fringes are called maxima.
❖ The central fringe is the zeroth-order maximum (𝞱 = 0) which is the brightest as all of the rays are
travelling parallel to one another and in phase, so the interference is constructive
❖ First-order maximum follows, where rays of light emerge from all of the slits to form a bright
fringe, This is not as bright as the central maximum.
 ❖ Hence they are in phase, travelling a path difference of one wavelength 𝝺, while ray 2 have a phase
difference of 2 wavelengths.

Diffraction grating equation

❖ d is the distance between adjacent lines of the grating (grating spacing)

❖ n is the order of the maximum (integer values)
❖ d = 1/N where, d = slit spacing , N = number of lines per meter
E.g.
Monochromatic light is incident normally on a diffraction grating having 3000 lines per
centimetre. The angular separation of the zeroth- and first-order maxima is found to be 100.
Calculate the wavelength of the incident light.

Diffracting white light:

Three dimentional aspect of diffraction of white light

❖ Violet closest to the centre and red furthest away.

❖ Different wavelengths have their maxima at different angles.
❖ A diffraction grating is a simple way of separating white light into its constituent wavelengths.

Worksheet on diffraction grating

1. Light from a source is incident normally on a diffraction grating which has 4000 lines per centimeter.
If the light consists of two wavelength 656 nm and 210 nm respectively, determine the angular
 separation between the two lines on the second order spectrum by the grating.
2. How many bright lines can be observed using a diffraction grating of length 2 cm and 104 lines when
illuminated normally with a light of wavelength 495 nm.
3. Red light of wavelength,= 700 nm is incident normally on a diffraction grating having lines
5 × 103 cm-1 . Estimate the angular deviation of the first order line.
4. light from a sodium vapour lamp is incident normally on a diffraction grating having 6000 lines per
centimetre. The spectrum obtained consists of two strong lines of 𝝺= 577 nm and 579 nm.
What is the angular separation between these two lines for the second order diffraction beam?
5. Diffraction grating has 400 lines per millimetre and is illuminated by monochromatic light of
wavelength 600 nm. Calculate:
(i) the grating spacing
(ii) the angle to the normal at which the first principle order is seen.
(iii) the number of diffraction maxima obtained.