6. diffraction grating 7. BIBIOLOGY 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 wavelength 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 the diffractionpattern depends on the nature of the gap (or mask) which diffracts the original light wave. Diffraction patterns can be calculated by 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 sections (spots) of the diffraction pattern each contain 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. DIFFRACTION => WHAT IS DIFFRACTION ? When parallel waves of light are obstructed by a very small object (i.e. sharp edge, slit, wire, etc.), the waves spread around the edges of the obstruction and interfere, resulting ina pattern of dark and light fringes. => WHAT DOES DEFFRATION LOOK LIKE ?When light diffracts off of the edge of an object, it creates a pattern of light referred to asa diffraction pattern. If a monochromatic light source, such as a laser, is used to observe diffraction, below are some examples of diffraction patterns that are created by certain objects. DIFFRACTION PATTERNSOBJECT DIFFRACTION PATTERN © Sharp edge (ie. razor blade) 7 Sharp edge | * Slit * Wire * Circular hole SINGLE SLIT 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 a slit of finite width a, as shown in Figure 1 WA AAA OVE VEE FIGURI Diffraction of light by a slit of width a In diffraction of Fraunhofer type, all rays passing through the slit are approximately parallel. In addition, each portion of the slit will act as a source of light waves according to Huygens'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 example, suppose there are 100 point sources, with the first 50 in the lower half, and 51 to 100 in the upper half. Source 1 and source 51 are separated by a distance and are out of phase with a path difference °a/25=A/ 2 . 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 sing = (14.5.1) sing=4 (14.5.2) Applying the same reasoning to the wavefronts from four equally spaced points a distance a / 4 apart, the path difference would be 5 = a sind / 4 , and the condition for destructive interference is2a sing=— (14.53) a The argument can be generalized to show that destructive interference will occur when fasind=mA,_m=Hl, £2, £3, (destructive interference)| (14.5.4) Figure 2 illustrates the intensity distribution for a single-slit diffraction. Note that @ = 0 is a maximum. yree tt? By comparing Eq. (14.5.4) with Eq. (14.2.5), we see that the condition for minima of a single-slit diffraction becomes the condition for maxima of a double-slit interference when the width of a single slit a is replaced by the separation between the two slits d. The reason is that in the double-slit case, the slits are taken to be so small that each one is considered as a 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 precisely by taking into consideration the interference of waves that originate within the same slit. 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 Ay a = / N , 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 Ay « A so that all the light from a given zone is in phase. Two adjacent zones have a relative path length 5 = Ay sin@ . The relative phase shift AB is given by the ratio AB _ 8 _Aysind aaa (146.1) 15 sina FIGURE 3 :- Single-slit Fraunhofer diffraction Suppose the wavefront from the first point (counting from the top) arrives at the point P on the screen with an electric field given by E,=E,sinot (14.62) The electric field from point 2 adjacent to point 1 will have a phase shift AB , and the field is E,sin(ox+Ap) (14.6.3)FIGURE:- Intensity of the single-slit Fraunhofer diffraction pattern Why \ a \ at / 46 \ pal \DIFFRACTION GRATING A diffraction grating consists of a large number N of slits each of widtha and separated from the next by a distance d , as shown in Figure FIGURE: - Diffraction gratin Tf 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 5 = d sin@ , 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 @ . Thus, the condition for the principal maxima is given by dsin@=mA, m=0,+1,+2,+3, (148.1) 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.The observation can be explained as follows: suppose an angle @ (recall that = 2s a in@ / A) 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 @ 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. THANK YOUBIBIOLOGY www google.com Neert text book {CLASS12} 3. STUDY MATERIAL . REFERENCE BOOKS {PHYSICS} . TEACHER {kv. bina} |. CLASSMATES