Estimation of Intensity Profile of Single Slit Diffraction Patterns

Joonsuk Huh (20125098)

(General Physics Experiment 2: Section 8)
Abstract: We estimated intensity profiles of single slit diffraction patterns via digital
image processing. We used slit width 0.02mm, 0.04mm, 0.08mm and 0.16mm. Then we
compared estimated intensity profiles with theoretical calculations based on phasor
diagram. We show that estimated intensity profiles well agree with theoretical calculations.
Theory & Introduction

Figure 1. Schematic of diffraction by slit with width a. D

is the distance between the slit and the screen. y is the
distance from the diffraction center.

Figure 2. Phasor diagram for the diffracted light with net

angular pahse difference .

This formula can be derived geometrically from

Diffraction is a wave phenomenon such that

phasor diagram[2,3]. If we think a single slit as a

when a group of waves passes an obstacle or a hole,

composition of infinitesimal width slits, then

its direction and intensity changes so that it looks

diffracted light can be thought as an infinite

like spreading out.[1] It essentially comes from the

superposition of lights emitted from every point

superposition of infinitely many electromagnetic

between point 1 and 2 due to Huygens principle.

waves with slightly different phases. Let be

Therefore its phasor diagram is like Figure 2. For

angular phase difference of wave at point 1 and

each , the amplitude of superposed wave E is same

point 2 at Figure 1. Then the intensity of electro-

as the length of the line segment bc. From the

magnetic wave due to infinite superposition of

isosceles triangle abc, the length of bc is given by

electromagnetic waves between point 1 and point 2

is given by[2]

= = 2sin

! !

= !

!"# !
!
!

(1)

where I is the intensity of the light of given and I0

is the maximum intensity of the light (when =0).

!
!

(2)

where R is the radius of the half-circle C. Because

the length of the arc bc is same as original
magnitude of wave E0, R can be written as

Figure 3. The path difference shown near the slit.

!!

(3)

If we combine (2), (3) and use the fact that the

Figure 4. Estimated intensity profile of diffraction

patterns from slit with width a=0.02, 0.04, 0.08, 0.16mm
along with theoretical calculations.

intensity I is proportional to E2, then we get (1).

In the real experiment, is not the direct control
variable. Therefore we need to express as a
function of slit width a and other variables. From
Figure 3, one can see that path difference between
the wave starting from the point 1 and the wave
from the point 2 is given by
= sin

(4)

Because of proportionality between and the

wavelength is and 2,
=

!!!
!

!!" !"# !
!

(5)

Finally, from figure 1, for small , sin tan =

y/D. Therefore the final expression for I is
= !

!"#
!"
!"#
!"

!"#

(6)

the diffraction pattern and D is the distance between

the slit from the screen. Especially, from (6) one can
see minima occurs when
!"#
!

= 1,2,3

matica packages LineProfile function to extract

intensity information of digital images along a line
segment. We normalized extracted intensity data by

Where y is the vertical distance from the center of

!"# =

Table 1. Distances ymin with theoretical calculations by Eq.

1. Estimated slit width a is presented with standard
deviation (SD). All values are presented in mm unit.

(7)

dividing them by the maximum intensity value.

Then we interpolated normalized intensity data
points.
Result & Discussion
Figure 4 shows estimated intensity profile along
with theoretical calculations. Froms figure 4, we see
that as slit width a increases, the width of intensity

Experimental Procedure
We used 650nm wavelength laser and slits of
width a = 0.02, 0.04, 0.08, 0.16mm respectively. Slit
to screen distance D = 1m. We took digital pictures
of diffraction patterns in dark room. We used Mathe

curve decreases. This can be shown from (7) and

also intuitively expected. From figure 4, one can see
that theory and experiments agree well.
Table 1 shows estimated distances ymin from the
center of the diffraction pattern to the minimum

intensity positions along with theoretical calculations by (7). We also estimated slit width a from
measured ymins using (7). Mean estimated value of a
and standard deviation (SD) is presented in Table 1.
We can see that theory and experimental values only
differ up to few millimeters. Specifically, their
mean % error between measurement and theory was
about 7.8%.

Conclusion
We observed single slit diffraction patterns of
650nm wavelength laser on the screen apart from the
slit by 1m. We used slits with width with width a =
0.02, 0.04, 0.08, 0.16mm. We estimated normalized
intensity profiles of diffraction patterns via digital
image processing using Mathematica software and
interpolated and plotted them as a function of
distance y from the center of the pattern. We saw
that as slit width a increases, the width of intensity
curve decreases as expected. We compared estimated intensity profile with theoretical formula (6)
and found that theory and experiment agree well.
We also measured distance ymins from the center of
the diffraction pattern to the points of minimum
intensity. We compared these with approximation
formula equation (7) and confirmed that this formula
and experiment also agree well.
References
[1] D. Halliday, R. Resnick, J. Walker, Fundamentals of
Physcis (Wiley, 2010, 9th ed.), p.963.

[2] D. Halliday, R. Resnick, J. Walker, Fundamentals of

Physcis (Wiley, 2010, 9th ed.), p.997.

[3] D. Halliday, R. Resnick, J. Walker, Fundamentals of

Physcis (Wiley, 2010, 9th ed.), p.998.