INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

“PHENOMENON OF DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT”

For CBSE 2021-22

Examination

[As a part of Physics course (042)]

Submitted By: Under the Guidance:

JIYA SUKHIJA MS. BHAWNA SETIA
12th A (PCM)

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 This is to certify that JIYA SUKHIJA of Class XII A
studying in Delhi Public School, Karnal has successfully
completed her project entitled “PHENOMENON OF
DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT” under the supreme guidance
of MS. BHAWNA SETIA in the academic season 2021-22

Ms. Bhawna Setia Principal: Dr. Suman Madan External’s Signature

INSTRUCTOR: Physics

DATE:

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I express my sincere thanks to the respected principal DR.
SUMAN MADAN, Delhi Public School, Karnal for her
support and for all the facilities provided for the preparation
of this project work.

I extend my sincere thanks to my instructor MS. BHAWNA

SETIA who guided me to the successful completion of this
project. I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of
gratitude for their invaluable guidance, constant
encouragement and immense motivation which has sustained
my efforts at all stages of this project work.

JIYA SUKHIJA

Roll Number – 17659865

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 CONTENTS

 Introduction
 Diffraction
 Diffraction Patterns
 Single Slit Diffraction
 Single Slit Interference
 Diffraction Grating

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 INTRODUCTION
The phenomenon of diffraction was first documented in
1665 by the Italian Francesco Maria Grimaldi. The use of
lasers has only become common in the last few
decades. The laser’s ability to produce a narrow beam
of coherent monochromatic radiation in the visible light
range makes it ideal for use in diffraction experiments:
the diffracted light forms a clear pattern that is easily
measured. As light or any wave, passes a barrier, the
waveform is distorted at the boundary edge. If the wave
passes through a gap, more obvious distortion can be
seen. As the gap width approaches the wave length of
the wave, the distortion becomes even more obvious.
This process is known as diffraction. If the diffracted
light is projected onto a screen some distance away,
then interference between the light waves create a
distinctive pattern (the diffraction pattern) on the
screen. The nature of diffraction pattern depends on the
nature of the gap (or mask) which diffracts the original
light wave. Diffraction pattern can be a calculated from
a function representing the mask. The symmetry of the
pattern can reveal useful information on the symmetry
of the mask. For a periodic object, the pattern is
equivalent to the reciprocal lattice of the object. In
conventional image formation, a lens focuses the
diffracted waves into an image. Since the individual

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sections (Spots) of the diffraction pattern each contains
information, by forming an image from only particular
parts of the diffraction pattern, the resulting image can
be used to enhance particular features. This is used in
bright and dark field imaging.

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 DIFFRACTION
When parallel waves of light are obstructed by a very
small object (ie. sharp edge, slit, wire, etc), the waves
spread around the edges of the obstruction and
interfere, resulting in a pattern of dark and light fringes.

WHAT DOES DIFFRACTION LOOK LIKE?

When light diffracts off of the edge of an object, it
creates a pattern of light referred to as a diffraction
pattern. If a monochromatic light source, such as a
laser, is used to observe diffraction, below are some
examples of diffraction pattern that are created by
certain objects.

DIFFRACTION PATTERNS

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 SINGLE SLITS DIFFRACTION
In our consideration of the young’s double-slit
experiments, we have assumed the width of the slits to
be so small that each slit is a point source. In this
section we shall take the width of slit to be finite and
see how Fraunhofer diffraction arises. Let a source of
monochromatic light be incident on the slit of finite
width, as shown in figure 1

FIGURE: Diffraction of light by a slit of width a

In the diffraction of Fraunhofer type, all rays passing
through a slit are approximately parallel. In addition,
each portion of the slit will act as a source of light
waves according to Huygen’s principle. For simplicity
we divide the slit into two halves. At the first minimum,
each ray from the upper half will be exactly 180 out of
phase with a corresponding ray form the lower half. For

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example suppose there are 100 point sources, with the
first 50 in the lower half, and 51-100 in the upper half.
Source 1 and Source 51 are separated by a distance and
are out of phase with the path difference .
Similar observation applies to source 2 and source 52,
as well as any pair that are a distance a / 2 apart. Thus
the condition for the first minimum is

Apply the same reasoning to the wave fronts from 4

equally spaced points a distance a / 4 apart, the path
difference would be , and the condition for
the destructive interference is

The argument can be generalised to show that

destructive interference will occur when

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Figure 2 illustrates the intensity distribution for
the single slit diffraction.
Note that Q = 0 is the maximum

By comparing Eq. (14.5.4) with Eq. (14.2.5), we see that

the condition for minima of the single slit diffraction
becomes the condition for maxima of the double slit
interference when the width of the single slit is
replaced by the separation between the two slits d. The
reason that in the single slit case, the slits are taken to
be very small that each one is considered as the single
light source, and the interference of waves originating
within the same slit can be neglected. On the other
hand the minimum condition for the single slit
diffraction is obtained preciously by taking into
consideration the interference of waves that originate
within the same slit.

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 SINGLE SLIT INTERFERENCE
How do we determine the intensity distribution for the
pattern produced by a single slit diffraction? To
calculate this, we must find the total electric field by
adding the field contributions from each point.

Let’s divide the single slit into N small zones each of

width as shown in Figure 14.6.1. The convex lens
is used to bring parallel light rays to a focal point P on
the screen. We shall assume that so that all
the light from a given zone is in phase. To adjacent
zones have a relative path length
The relative phrase shift is given by the ratio

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 Figure 3: Single slit Fraunhofer diffraction

Suppose the wave front from the first point (counting

from the top) arrives at the point P on the screen with
an electric field is given by

The electric field from point 2 adjacent to point 1 will

have a phase shift , and the field is

Figure: Intensity of the single-slit Fraunhofer

diffraction pattern
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 DIFFRACTION GRATING

A diffraction grating consists of a large number N of

slits each of width a and separated from the next by a
distance d, as shown in Figure

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 FIGURE: Diffraction Grating
If we assume that the incident light is planar and
diffraction spreads the light from each slit over a wide
angle so that the light from all the slits will interfere
with each other. The relative path difference between
each pair of adjacent slits is sinQ, similar to the
calculation we made for the double-slit case. If this
path difference is equal to an integral multiple of
wavelengths then all the slits will constructively
interfere with each other and a bright spot will appear
on the screen at an angle Q. Thus, the condition for the
principal maxima is given by

If the wavelength of the light and the location of the m-

order maximum are known, the distance d between
slits may be readily deduced. The location of the
maxima does not depend on the number of slits, N.
However, the maxima become sharper and more
intense as N is increased. The width of the maxima can
be shown to be inversely proportional to N. In Figure
14.8.2, we show the intensity distribution as a function
of B / 2 for diffraction grating with N =10 and N=30 .
Notice that the principal maxima become sharper and
narrower as N increases.

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The observation can be explained as follows: suppose
an angle Q (recall that which initially
gives a principal maximum is increased slightly, if there
were only two slits, then the two waves will still be
nearly in phase and produce maxima which are broad.
However, in grating with a large number of slits, even
though Q may only be slightly deviated from the value
that produces a maximum, it could be exactly out of
phase with light wave from another slit far away. Since
grating produces peaks that are much sharper than the
two-slit system, it gives a more precise measurement
of the wavelength.