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Resolving Power of Grating

The resolving power of a grating is defined as its ability to form separate diffraction maxima for two wavelengths that are close together. It is measured by the ratio of the smallest differentiable wavelengths to their mean wavelength. The resolving power is directly proportional to the order of the spectrum (m) and the total number of grating lines (N), as shown by the equation R ∙ P ∙= dλ = mN. In other words, the higher the order and number of lines, the better the grating can resolve close wavelengths.

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Nadia F Mohammad Al-Roshdee
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2K views

Resolving Power of Grating

The resolving power of a grating is defined as its ability to form separate diffraction maxima for two wavelengths that are close together. It is measured by the ratio of the smallest differentiable wavelengths to their mean wavelength. The resolving power is directly proportional to the order of the spectrum (m) and the total number of grating lines (N), as shown by the equation R ∙ P ∙= dλ = mN. In other words, the higher the order and number of lines, the better the grating can resolve close wavelengths.

Uploaded by

Nadia F Mohammad Al-Roshdee
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Resolving Power of Grating

It is defined as the capacity of a grating to form separate diffraction maxima of two wavelengths which are
very close to each other
It is measured by (\d) where is the smallest difference in two wavelengths which are just resolvable by
grating and  is the wavelength of either of them or mean wavelength.
Let AB represent the surface of a plane transmission
grating having grating element (e+d) and N total number of
slits. Let a beam of light having two
wavelengths and is normally incident on the
grating. Let P1 is mth primary maximum of a spectral line of
wavelength at an angle of diffraction and P2 is
the mth primary maximum of wavelength at
diffracting angle
According to Rayleigh criterion, the two wavelengths
will be resolved if the principal maximum of nth order in a direction falls over the first
minimum of nth order in the same direction . Let us consider the first minimum of l of nth order in the
direction as below.
The principal maximum of in the direction is given by
(𝑒 + 𝑑)𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 = 𝑛𝜆 ........... (1)
The equation of minima is N(e+d)sin = nwhere m takes all integers except 0, N, 2N, …,
mN, because for these values of m, the condition for maxima is satisfied. Thus first minimum adjacent
to nth principal maximum in the direction can be obtained by substituting the value
of ‘n’ as (mN+1). Therefore, the first minimum in the direction of is given by
𝑁(𝑒 + 𝑑)𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝜃 + 𝑑𝜃) = (𝑚𝑁 + 1)
1
(𝑒 + 𝑑)𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝜃 + 𝑑𝜃) = (𝑚 + ) 𝜆 ……... (2)
𝑁

The principal maximum of in direction is given by


(𝑒 + 𝑑)𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝜃 + 𝑑𝜃) = 𝑚(𝜆 + 𝑑𝜆) .......(3)
1
Dividing eq.(2) by eq.(3), we get (𝑚 + 𝑁) 𝜆 = 𝑚(𝜆 + 𝑑𝜆)

𝜆
(𝑚𝜆 + ) = (𝑚𝜆 + 𝑚𝑑𝜆)
𝑁
𝜆
= 𝑚𝑑𝜆
𝑁
𝜆
= 𝑚𝑁
𝑑𝜆
𝜆
∴ 𝑅 ∙ 𝑃 ∙= 𝑑𝜆 = 𝑚𝑁..............(4)

Thus the resolving power is directly proportional to


(i) The order of the spectrum ‘m’
(ii) The total number of lines on the grating ‘N’

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