EXPERIMENT No.

Aim:- To find the divergence of LASER beam and to determine the wavelength of laser light
by using transmission diffraction grating.
Apparatus:-Diode laser, stand, screen, diffraction grating, measuring tape, plain
paper etc
Theory:- The beam divergence of an electromagnetic beam is an angular measure of
the increase in beam diameter or radius with distance from the optical
aperture or antenna aperture from which the electromagnetic beam emerges.
Beam divergence is often used to characterize electromagnetic beams in the optical
regime, for cases in which the aperture from which the beam emerges is very large
with respect to the wavelength. That said, it is also used in the Radio Frequency (RF)
regime for cases in which the antenna is operating in the so-called optical region and
is likewise very large relative to a wavelength.
Like all electromagnetic beams, lasers are subject to divergence, which is measured
in mill radians (mrad) or degrees. For many applications, a lower-divergence beam is
preferable. Neglecting divergence due to poor beam quality, the divergence of a laser
beam is proportional to its wavelength and inversely proportional to the diameter of
the beam at its narrowest point. For example, an ultraviolet laser that emits at a
wavelength of 308 nm will have a lower divergence than an infrared laser at 808 nm,
if both have the same minimum beam diameter.

One of the chief advantages of a laser is that it produces a beam of light whose edges
are parallel. Any deviation from perfect parallelism eventually causes the beam to
diverge and spread out its energy, becoming weaker and weaker with distance. In this
experiment we’ll measure the actual divergence of our laser beam.
In an optical resonator, if single pass gain is more than cavity loss (including
diffraction) then TEM00 mode is developed whose intensity distribution has Gaussian
shape in a direction transverse to the direction of propagation of the beam. A Gaussian
beam has following property. If a beam has Gaussian transverse profile at one
location, then it will have Gaussian transverse profile at other locations elsewhere
(except when optical elements introduce a distortion that is non-uniform across the
wave front of the beam). Such a Gaussian beam can be characterized completely at
any spatial location by defining both its “Beam Waist” and radius of curvature of
wave front at specific location of beam.

In this figure, Z-axis is chosen as direction of propagation of laser beam and origin is
chosen at the point where waist size is minimum. Since Gaussian beam remains
Gaussian at all locations, thus the waist size of the beam at a distance Z is given by the
relation:

W2 (Z) = Wo2 + ɵo2Z2

This result is the standard result and follows from property of Gaussian beam.
Here Wo = minimum waist size, ɵo is the angle of divergence, W(Z) is waist size at
distance Z.
To find the angle of divergence ɵo, we set up three equations:

W 12 = Wo2 + ɵo2Z2 (ii)

W 22 = Wo2 + ɵo2 (Z+D)2= Wo2 + ɵo2Z2 +2Z ɵo2 (iii)
W 32 = Wo2 + ɵo2 (Z+2D)2
= Wo2 + ɵo2Z2 +ɵo2 (4D2) +4ZD ɵo2 (iv)
From (ii), (iii) and (iv), we have
W 12 -2W22 +W32= 2 ɵo2Z2
1 W 12 -2W22 +W32
ɵ=
√
D 2
Procedure:-
(i) Arrange the apparatus as shown.
(ii) Fix the paper on the screen and place it at some distance Z from laser. Using a
pencil, draw the circular spot on the paper and measure the vertical and horizontal
diameters of the circular spot. Calculate the mean of both values to get the
accurate value of the diameter. This is the waist size W1
(iii) Now distance screen in the direction of beam propagation by a known distance D
(total distance from laser becomes Z+D) and measure spot size W 2 as measured in
previous step.
(iv) Now displace screen further away by same value D, so the new distance becomes
(Z+2D). Measure spot size W 3
(v) Put the values in the formula and calculate laser divergence.

Formula used : Let D is the distance through which screen is displaced, W

1,W2,W32 are the spot size at distance Z, Z+D, Z+2D from laser, W o is the minimum
waist/spot size, then angular divergence is given by
1 W 12 -2W22 +W32
ɵ=
√
D 2

Observation Table:-
(i) Initial distance between laser and screen Z=.........cm
(ii) Displacement of screen D=............cm

Sr. No. Distance (cm) Diameter Mean ɵo

Left right diameter
1 Z= W1
2 Z+D= W2
3 Z+2D= W3

Result & Discussions:-

The angle of divergence of the diode laser is ______milli radian. Since this angle is
very small (in the range of milli radians), we conclude that laser beam is highly
directional as compared to ordinary light source