CH 36 DIFFRACTION I

Intended Learning Outcomes – after this lecture you will learn:

1. Diffraction pattern from a single slit – Fraunhofer diffraction
2. Huygens’s principle in wave optics (refer to textbook session 33.7)
3. Intensity in a single slit diffraction pattern
4. Intensity in the Young’s double slit interference pattern
Textbook Reference: 36.1 – 36.4

What is Diffraction?
Sound can go around a corner but light cannot?

Although light ray goes in

straight lines (pencils of ray), it
doesn’t cast a sharp shadow
from a sharp edge

In reality, most visible

when light is
monochromatic

Shadow of Diffraction pattern – bright and

razor edge dark fringes

Diffraction makes light bend around an obstacle, very much like

sound wave except that the effect in light is much less noticeable
due to the small wavelength → beautifully demonstrates the wave
nature of light.

PHYS1114 Lecture 23 Diffraction I P. 1

Diffraction Pattern from a Single Slit
Only consider the situation where the light source, obstacle, and screen are far apart so that we
can assume rays from the obstacle to the screen are parallel, called Fraunhofer diffraction. Use a
lens to focus the pattern on the screen.

Huygens’s Principle:
every point on a
wavefront acts like a
point source that generate
wavelets. Resulting
wavefront is a
superposition of these
wavelets.

Divide the slit into an upper half and a lower half. Along a
particular direction 𝜃𝜃, consider two strips of wavelets, one
from the top edge, one from the midpoint of the slit
See a dark fringe if
𝑎𝑎 𝜆𝜆
sin 𝜃𝜃 = or 𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜃𝜃 = 𝜆𝜆
2 2
i.e. every strip from upper half slit cancelled by one from
lower half slit at distance 𝑎𝑎/2 apart

Why not consider path differences of 3𝜆𝜆⁄2 , 5𝜆𝜆⁄2 , …? See next part 

Likewise, divide the slit into 4, 6, 8, … equal parts, condition to have dark fringe along 𝜃𝜃 is
𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜃𝜃 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 , 𝑚𝑚 = ±1, ±2, ±3, …
An easy way to remember this: as if the path difference between rays from the top and
bottom strips is an integral number of 𝜆𝜆
𝑚𝑚 = 0 is a bright fringe (no path difference)
𝑚𝑚 < 0 means 𝜃𝜃 in the negative sense
Small angle approximation, just like in the case of interference
sin 𝜃𝜃 ≅ 𝜃𝜃 ≅ tan 𝜃𝜃 = 𝑦𝑦/𝑥𝑥

PHYS1114 Lecture 23 Diffraction I P. 2

 central bright
band, twice the
spacing of dark
fringes

dark fringes
equally spaced

Question
𝑎𝑎
For 𝑚𝑚 = 2, 2 sin 𝜃𝜃 = 𝜆𝜆. Does this mean constructive interference between rays from the strips at
the top edge and at the midpoint of the slit? Should it be a maximum or minimum?
Ans. Yes, but these two rays are “cancelled” by respective rays from the strips at 𝑎𝑎/4 and 3𝑎𝑎/4
from the top edge, therefore a minimum.

PHYS1114 Lecture 23 Diffraction I P. 3

Intensity in the Single Slit Pattern
Use phasor diagram to add up all wavelets arriving at a point on the screen
At O, all wavelets in phase

O At P, each consecutive wavelet has constant phase

shift. Total phase shift is 𝛽𝛽, total amplitude is 𝐸𝐸𝑃𝑃

Approximate
geometry when
number of wavelets
is infinity

2
sin(𝛽𝛽 ⁄2) sin(𝛽𝛽 ⁄2)
𝐸𝐸𝑃𝑃 = 𝐸𝐸0 ⇒ 𝐼𝐼 = 𝐼𝐼0 � �
𝛽𝛽 ⁄2 𝛽𝛽 ⁄2
Total path difference (between rays from strips at the top
and bottom of slit) is 𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜃𝜃, corresponding to phase
difference
2𝜋𝜋
𝛽𝛽 = 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 sin 𝜃𝜃 ⇒ 𝛽𝛽 = 𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜃𝜃
𝜆𝜆

Intensity minimum (dark fringes):

𝛽𝛽 𝜋𝜋
sin(𝛽𝛽 ⁄2) = 0 ⇒ = 𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜃𝜃 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚
2 𝜆𝜆
or 𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜃𝜃 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚, 𝑚𝑚 = ±1, ±2, …
When 𝑚𝑚 = 0, 𝛽𝛽 = 0, intensity is maximum because
sin 𝑥𝑥
lim = 1 (L' Ho� pital' s rule)
𝑥𝑥→0 𝑥𝑥
Intensity maximum (bright fringes):
Roughly (not exactly) at 𝛽𝛽 ≅ ±(2𝑚𝑚 + 1)𝜋𝜋, corresponding
to sin(𝛽𝛽 ⁄2) = 1, and the corresponding intensities are
roughly
𝐼𝐼0
𝐼𝐼𝑚𝑚 ≈ 2 = 0.0450𝐼𝐼0 , 0.0162𝐼𝐼0 , 0.0083𝐼𝐼0 , … when 𝑚𝑚 = 1, 2, 3, …
�𝑚𝑚+12� 𝜋𝜋 2

c.f. the actual calculated intensities are 0.0472𝐼𝐼0 , 0.0165𝐼𝐼0 , 0.0083𝐼𝐼0 , …, not too far off 
PHYS1114 Lecture 23 Diffraction I P. 4
 Angular width of central maximum (from 𝑚𝑚 = −1 to 𝑚𝑚 = 1)
𝜆𝜆 2𝜆𝜆
2𝜃𝜃1 = 2 sin−1 ≅ if small angle approximation holds
𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎
The smaller 𝑎𝑎, the wider the central maximum
If 𝜆𝜆 ≥ 𝑎𝑎, 2𝜃𝜃1 = 180°, no dark fringe on the screen, c.f. diffraction of sound wave (𝜆𝜆~m)
through a door of width 𝑎𝑎 ≲ m

Demonstration

Single-Slit Diffraction with Laser

Example 36.1 and 36.3 P. 1217 and 1221

If 𝜆𝜆 = 633 nm, and the central maximum on the screen
is 32 mm width, then the width of the slit 𝑎𝑎 is
0.016 m
𝑎𝑎 � � = 633 × 10−9 m ⇒ 𝑎𝑎 = 0.24 mm
6.0 m

At 3.00 mm from the center of the pattern,

𝛽𝛽 𝜋𝜋 𝜋𝜋 0.00300 m
= 𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜃𝜃 = −9
(0.24 × 10−3 m) � � = 0.60 rad
2 𝜆𝜆 633 × 10 m 6.0 m
the intensity is
2
sin(𝛽𝛽 ⁄2) sin 0.60 2
𝐼𝐼0 � � =� � 𝐼𝐼0 = 0.89𝐼𝐼0
𝛽𝛽 ⁄2 0.60

PHYS1114 Lecture 23 Diffraction I P. 5

Double Slit Revisit
Recall in Young’s double slit (assuming slit infinitely narrow), intensity is
𝜙𝜙 2𝜋𝜋
𝐼𝐼 = 𝐼𝐼0 cos2 , 𝜙𝜙 = 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 sin 𝜃𝜃 = 𝑑𝑑 sin 𝜃𝜃.
2 𝜆𝜆
This predicts 𝐼𝐼 identical in all maxima, which doesn’t agree with experiment
In reality, slits have finite width 𝑎𝑎
2
sin(𝛽𝛽 ⁄2) 𝜙𝜙 2𝜋𝜋 2𝜋𝜋
𝐼𝐼 = 𝐼𝐼0 � � cos2 𝛽𝛽 = 𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜃𝜃 , 𝜙𝜙 = 𝑑𝑑 sin 𝜃𝜃
𝛽𝛽 ⁄2 2 𝜆𝜆 𝜆𝜆

single slit only 2 narrow slits only

condition for dark fringes:

combined effect condition for bright fringes:
𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜃𝜃 = 𝑚𝑚𝑑𝑑 𝜆𝜆,
𝑑𝑑 sin 𝜃𝜃 = 𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑖 𝜆𝜆,
𝑚𝑚𝑑𝑑 = ±1, ± 2, …
𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑖 = 0, ±1, ±2, …

Secondary peaks reduce in intensity

Coincidence: if 𝑑𝑑 and 𝑎𝑎 are in simple integer ratio, say 𝑑𝑑 = 4𝑎𝑎, then for 𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑖 = ±4, ±8, .. , the
corresponding maxima in intensity are missing because they coincide with single slit dark
fringes.

Question
Two slits, each of width 𝑎𝑎 and are 𝑑𝑑 = 2.5𝑎𝑎 apart. Are there missing maxima in the interference
pattern?

PHYS1114 Lecture 23 Diffraction I P. 6

Digression: Feynman’ comment on the difference between diffraction and interference
“No one has ever been able to define the difference between interference and diffraction
satisfactorily. It is just a quest of usage, and there is no specific, important physical difference
between them. The best we can do is, roughly speaking, to say that when there are only a few
sources, say two interference sources, then the result is usually called interference, but if there is
a large number of them, it seems that the word diffraction is more often used.”
− from the Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol I, 30-1

Clicker Questions

PHYS1114 Lecture 23 Diffraction I P. 7

Ans: Q36.1) C, Q36.2) D, Q36.3) C

PHYS1114 Lecture 23 Diffraction I P. 8

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_von_Fraunhofer

PHYS1114 Lecture 23 Diffraction I P. 9