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2007 15:07 Uhr Seite 30

Image courtesy of National Optical Astronomy Observatory/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy/National Science Foundation

A fresh look at light: build

your own spectrometer

A high-resolution version of the solar spectrum, showing a great multitude of

Fraunhofer lines. The wavelength increases from left to right, then bottom to top

Take a CD and a cereal box, and what do you have?

With a little help from Mark Tiele Westra, your very
own spectrometer! Time to explore the delights of
colour, hidden in the most prosaic of objects.

W hite light is not actually white

– it consists of many different
colours. The composition of light –
describe how one can build a fully
functioning spectrometer with little
more than a cereal box and a compact
ful world of hidden colours behind
everyday household objects such as
light bulbs, fluorescent lights, com-
its spectrum – is studied by a device disc. We will use the do-it-yourself puter monitors and candle flames.
called a spectrometer. In this article, we instrument to marvel at the wonder- Let’s explore!

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Teaching activities

How to separate light

There are different ways to split each other on a surface, as shown below. CD are a clear indication that it acts
white light into its different colours. The interaction of the tiny grooves like a diffraction grating. But why?
One way is to use a prism, like with the light waves leads to the dif- The illustration above shows what a
Newton did. Due to variations in ferent colours being reflected in dif- strong magnification of the surface of
refractive index, different colours fol- ferent directions. a CD would look like. The music is
low distinct paths through the prism, It is very fortunate that everybody encoded in short and long pits, which
causing the colours to separate. has high-quality diffraction gratings are placed in a long spiral groove on
Another way is to use a so-called dif- at home: compact discs (CDs). The the surface of the CD. The grooves,
fraction grating, which consists of a large beautiful colours that can be seen which are spaced just 1.6 µm (1600
number of tiny grooves, placed parallel to when light reflects off the surface of a nm) apart, act as a grating.

Image courtesy of Mark Tiele Westra

Image courtesy of Mark Tiele Westra

white light
1.6 micrometre

prism A 6250-fold magnification of the

A prism separates white light into its constituent colours surface of a compact disc

Constructing a cereal-box spectrograph

We can make good use of these eye observed spectra can be made using a
Image courtesy of Mark Tiele Westra

household diffraction gratings for simple digital camera, with ‘macro’

constructing our own spectrometer. It capability for close-up focus, attached
consists of two important elements: a to the box by tape or rubber bands.
CD, which separates the light into its The camera should preferably have
different colours, and a narrow slit on manual focus, as it can be difficult to
light slit
the opposite side of the box which get sharp spectra with auto-focus.
source
produces a narrow beam of light.
The slit is constructed on one side
CD
of the box using some thick paper and 60°
Images courtesy of Mark Tiele Westra

duct tape. A slightly fancier model

can be made using the two small
Construction of the cereal-box spec-
blades from a disposable razor, which
trometer. The CD is placed at a 60°
are taped down with the sharp edges angle to the bottom of the box
facing each other, as shown in the pic-
ture. If the slit is too broad, the spec-
trum will be blurred, and if it is too cut, through which the CD can be
narrow, the spectrum will be too dim. observed. Stray light is excluded from
A width of 0.2 mm seems to work the box by covering any holes around
well, but one can experiment. The the CD, as well as the edges of the
quality of the spectra obtained is CD, with dark tape.
dependent on the quality of the slit, To observe a spectrum, the slit is
so it should be constructed with care. pointed towards a source of light (the
On the other side of the box, a CD closer the better), and the investigator
(the author used an empty rewritable looks down through the hole on top. The spectrometer constructed by the
CD) is mounted at a 60° angle to the Move the box around a little to get a author. The bottom-right picture shows
bottom of the box. On top, a hole is feel for what to look at. Photos of the the slit constructed from razor blades

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Images courtesy of Mark Tiele Westra

1. 2. 3. 4.

Measurements
Time to experiment! Our first The second fluorescent light shows 1. Spectrum of an incandescent light
attempt is to look at the spectrum of a very different spectrum. The reason bulb
an ordinary incandescent light bulb. is that manufacturers can vary the 2. Spectrum of an ordinary fluorescent
The result is shown above. We see a colour of the light by using different light
nice, continuous spectrum, with all combinations of phosphors. The lamp
3. Spectrum of a fluorescent light using
the colours of the rainbow. In a light illustrated uses a phosphor that emits tri-colour phosphors. Due to overex-
bulb, light is produced by a very hot a continuous spectrum, but this type posure by the camera, some of the
filament of metal. uses so-called tri-colour phosphors: a lines appear to have a slightly different
Secondly, we look at two different combination of three phosphors colour to that which they really have.
fluorescent lights, which both emit which each has its own set of emis- The bright yellow line in the red part
white light. sion lines. We perceive the resulting of the spectrum should be red as well
The first, which is an ordinary mix of colours as white. 4. The spectrum of a laptop screen
fluorescent light, shows a number of A small section of the screen of a
sharp lines against the background of laptop showing a white Word docu-
a continuous spectrum. These emission ment produces the spectrum shown
lines (see text below) are produced by above. The three pixel colours that
low-density mercury vapour in the make up the image – red, green and
tube. The mercury also produces blue – are very distinct.
ultraviolet light, which is turned into
a continuous spectrum of visible light
by a thin layer of phosphor on the
inside of the tube.

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Teaching activities

How spectra are formed

Some of the spectra that can be seen

Image courtesy of Mark Tiele Westra

with the cereal-box spectrometer have high density diffraction
a continuous background, with the hot matter grating Continous spectrum
colours varying smoothly from dark
red to dark blue. Others consist of
sharp lines on a continuous back-
ground, sharp lines without back- hot gas Emission spectrum
ground, or even dark lines on a con-
tinuous background, like in the solar
spectrum (see right). Why all this
cold gas Absorption spectrum
diversity? How are spectra formed?
It is all due to the atoms. An indi-
vidual atom can find itself in different
energy states, depending on whether
its electrons occupy their usual orbits The three types of spectra and their origin. Solids, fluids and high-pressure gases
or have been excited to higher orbits. emit a continuous spectrum (top). A low-density hot gas (middle) emits a line
spectrum. Finally, when light with a continuous spectrum passes through a low-
An atom cannot have just any energy:
density cold gas, specific colours of light are absorbed, leaving dark lines in an
the energy levels are sharply defined,
absorption spectrum
dictated by the detailed atomic struc-
ture. When an electron jumps from
one orbit to another, the change corre-
sponds to a precise amount of energy lines in the spectrum, which are to a continuous spectrum. The three
which is emitted in the form of a sin- called absorption lines. types of spectra are summarised in
gle photon. The energy of the emitted But if all spectra are formed by the illustration above.
photon determines its colour. atoms emitting sharply defined Different atoms (and molecules)
Because many different jumps are colours, how are continuous spectra have different emission and absorp-
possible, each atom can emit a range formed? For a single atom, unaffected tion spectra. This difference can be
of distinct colours of light. If this by external influences, the lines are exploited: just by looking at the light
light is separated by a prism or a indeed sharp. This is the case in a that comes from a distant object, for
diffraction grating, each colour is low-density gas such as in a fluores- example the Sun or a star, we can tell
visible as an emission line in the cent tube. In a higher-pressure gas, which chemical elements are present.
spectrum, which is itself called a line such as the Sun, and also in fluids On Earth, this technique is used by
spectrum. and solids, there are frequent colli- shining light through a sample (often
To demonstrate the formation of an sions and many other mechanisms a gas) and measuring the absorption
emission line, we look at what hap- that cause the lines to lose their spectrum, from which the composi-
pens when some ordinary table salt sharpness and become fuzzy, leading tion of the sample can be derived.
(sodium chloride, NaCl) is put in a
candle flame. The upper pictures
show the continuous spectrum of the
flame itself, just like that of an incan-
Image courtesy of Mark Tiele Westra

A little table salt held in a candle flame

descent light bulb. When a little table produces a sodium emission line
salt is put on a knife and held in the
flame, a distinct orange line appears
in the spectrum, which corresponds
to the emission line of sodium (Na,
at 589 nm).
An atom not only emits light, but
also absorbs photons of the same
energy that it emits. If light passes
through a cold, low-density gas of
atoms, the atoms in the gas absorb
specific frequencies causing dark

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Image courtesy of Mark Tiele Westra

a name: Fraunhofer lines. Joseph von

Fraunhofer (1787-1826) was the first
to make a systematic study and care-
ful measurements of these dark lines,
although he was not the first to
observe them. In all, he mapped over
570 lines, which he categorised and
named.
Around 1860, Kirchoff and Bunsen
discovered that each chemical ele-
ment is associated with a set of spec-
The spectrum of the Sun as seen with our cereal-box spectrometer. The lines tral lines. They deduced that the
correspond to: (1) hydrogen at 656 nm, (2) sodium at 589 nm, (3) iron at 527 nm, (4)
Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum
magnesium at 518 nm, (5) hydrogen at 486 nm, and (6) iron and calcium at 431 nm
were caused by the absorption of spe-
cific colours of light in the outer lay-
The solar spectrum ers of the Sun. Some of the lines are
Taking our spectrometer outdoors, outer layers of the Sun, and in Earth’s also caused by the absorption of light
we can look at the spectrum of sun- atmosphere. The image above does by atoms in the atmosphere of Earth,
light. The spectrum, shown above, not do justice to the full capabilities such as oxygen. The study of these
looks continuous at first glance. But if of the cereal-box spectrometer: with lines eventually led to the discovery
we take a closer look, several dark the naked eye the absorption lines of the element helium in the Sun,
lines can be identified, which are can be seen in much greater detail. which ultimately provided proof
caused by the absorption of specific The absorption lines that we that the Sun is powered by nuclear
frequencies of light by atoms in the observe in the solar spectrum have fusion.

Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Xiaojin Zhu of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, This article describes a very interesting hands-on experiment that can
whose website (www.cs.cmu.edu/~ easily be replicated in class or at home. The spectrometer is con-
zhuxj/astro/html/spectrometer.html) structed from common materials and is used to show the colour com-
provided me with all the information position of white light and to compare the spectra of many light
I needed to construct my own spec- sources. Of particular interest is the historical background to the dis-
trometer and to interpret the results. covery of the light spectrum of the Sun and how it was used to iden-
REVIEW

On his website more spectra are avail- tify the composition of its gases.
able. Also thanks to Bartjan van der The article links physics and chemistry and would be interesting to
Meer, who put me on the trail of this both secondary school and university students.
fantastic science project.
Gaetano Bugeja, Malta

Resources
Wikipedia article on the visible
spectrum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Spectroscopy Mark Tiele Westra is the Public
Visible_spectrum Wikipedia article on the Fraunhofer Information Officer at the FOM-
lines: Institute for Plasma Physics
General info on spectra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Rijnhuizen, the Netherlands.
Wikipedia article on the electromag- Fraunhofer_lines
netic spectrum:
Wikipedia article on the emission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
lines:
Electromagnetic_spectrum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Wikipedia article on spectroscopy: Emission_lines

34 Science in School Issue 4 : Spring 2007 www.scienceinschool.org