Introduction/Theory:Diffraction Grating:

A diffraction grating is a multiple-slit interference device, an

array of a large number of parallel, closely spaced slits, all with the

same width a and spaced equal distances d between centers ,

useful for viewing the color spectrum of a light source and for
analyzing the light.
The rst one was constructed by Fraunhofer using ne wires.
Diffraction patterns of bright and dark fringes occur when monochromatic
light passes through a single or double slit. Fringe patterns also result when light
passes through more than two slits i.e. through Diffraction grating.
Although the term diffraction is used in the name, it would be more
appropriate to call these devices interference gratings. The primary effect is that of
interference of light coming from different slits. Although the terms interference and
diffraction are sometimes interchangeable, we usually use interference when
referring to effects of separate slits or openings and diffraction for effects from a
single opening.
A diffraction grating has a very large number of slits very closely spaced. A
good grating may have several hundred slits in the space of just 1 mm. Precision
machines have been designed to produce these closely spaced slits or lines needed
for producing high quality gratings. A diffraction grating can be manufactured by
scratching glass with a sharp tool in a number of precisely positioned parallel lines,
with the untouched regions acting like slits. Nowadays, good gratings can be made
much more simply using lasers and holographic techniques. Gratings can also be
made by using a diamond point to scratch many equally spaced grooves on a glass
or metal surface, or by photographic reduction of a pattern of black and white
stripes on paper.
Gratings with as many as 40,000 slits per centimeter can be made,
depending on the production method. In one method a diamond-tipped cutting tool
is used to inscribe closely spaced parallel lines on a glass plate, the spaces between
the lines serving as the slits. In fact, the number of slits per centimeter is often
quoted as the number of lines per centimeter.
Diffraction gratings work both for transmission of light, and for reflection of
light, as on butterfly wings or on the CD/DVD. Natural diffraction gratings occur in
the feathers of certain birds. Tiny nger like structures in regular patterns act as
reflection gratings, producing constructive interference that gives the feathers
colors not solely clue to their pigmentation.
In addition to their use as novelty items, diffraction gratings are commonly
used for spectroscopic dispersion and analysis of light. What makes them
particularly useful is the fact that they form a sharper pattern than double slits do.

By increasing the number of slits in an interference experiment, an

interesting pattern emerges. If the spacing of the slits remains the same, the bright
fringes become brighter and narrower as the number of slits increases. Because
these maxima are so narrow, their angular position, and hence the wavelength, can
be measured to very high precision.
Diffraction gratings are used to separate and measure the wavelengths of
light in instruments we call spectrometers. They are a common piece of apparatus
in chemistry and physics laboratories. Holographically produced gratings are now
also seen in many novelty products including space glasses" and reflective gift
wrappings. The colorful effects that we see when viewing a compact disc (CD) are
also a grating phenomenon. The disc contains a continuous spiral track that circles
the disc from the inside to the outside. Adjacent turns of this spiral track are very
closely spaced and act as a reflecting diffraction grating.

Figure illustrates how light travels to a distant viewing screen from each of
ve slits in a grating and forms the central bright fringe and the rst-order bright
fringes on either side. Higher-order bright fringes are also formed but are not shown
in the drawing. Each bright fringe is located by an angle

relative to the central

fringe. These bright fringes are sometimes called the principal fringes or principal
maxima, since they are places where the light intensity is a maximum. The term
principal distinguishes them from other, much less bright, fringes that are referred
to as secondary fringes or secondary maxima.
Constructive interference creates the principal fringes. To show how, we
assume the screen is far from the grating, so that the rays remain nearly parallel
while the light travels toward the screen. In reaching the place on the screen where
a rst-order maximum is located, light from slit 2 travels a distance of one
wavelength farther than light from slit 1, as in Figure. Similarly, light from slit 3
travels one Wavelength farther than light from slit 2 and so forth, as emphasized by
the four colored right triangles on the right hand side of the drawing. For the rstorder maximum, the blow-up view of slits 1 and 2 shows that constructive

interference occurs when sin = d , where d is the separation between slits. A

second-order maximum forms when the extra distance traveled by light from

adjacent slits is two wavelengths, so that sin = d

Whenever this path difference is equal to an integer multiple of

the light wavelength, we get a strong bright fringe for that wavelength.
This condition can be expressed as

d sin=m
Where m is an integer having possible values 0,

1,

2,

3 etc.

Since the condition locating the fringes depends on the wavelength of the
light, different wavelengths will appear at different points on the screen for a given
order m. Thus passing light through a diffraction grating will spread the light into its
spectrum of colors. A good grating produces a wider separation of colors than a
prism and also allows direct computation of the wavelength from the condition for
interference.
When a grating containing hundreds or thousands of slits is illuminated by a
beam of parallel rays of monochromatic light, the pattern is a series of very sharp
lines at different angles. If the grating is illuminated by white light with a continuous
distribution of wavelengths, each value of m corresponds to a continuous
spectrum in the pattern. The angle for each wavelength is determined by above
equation. For a given value of m, long wavelengths (the red end of the spectrum) lie
at larger angles (that is, are deviated more from the straight-ahead direction) than
do the shorter wavelengths at the violet end of the spectrum.
As Eq. shows, the sines of the deviation angles of the maxima are
proportional to the ratio

d . For substantial deviation to occur, the grating spacing

d should be of the same order of magnitude as the wavelength

use with visible light (

. Gratings for

from 400 to 700 nm) usually have about 1000 slits per

millimeter; the value of d is the reciprocal of the number of slits per unit length, so
d is of the order of

1
1000 mm = 1000 nm.

In a reflection grating, the array of equally spaced slits is replaced by an

array of equally spaced ridges or grooves on a reflective screen. The reflected light
has maximum intensity at angles where the phase difference between light waves
reflected from adjacent ridges or grooves is an integral multiple of 2 . If light of
wavelength

is incident normally on a reflection grating with a spacing d

between adjacent ridges or grooves, the reflected angles at which intensity maxima
occur are given by above Eq.

The rainbow-colored reflections from the surface of a DVD are a reflection

grating effect. The grooves are tiny pits 0.12 m

deep in the surface of the disc,

with a uniform radial spacing of 0.74 m =740 nm. Information is coded on the
DVD by varying the length of the pits. The reflection-grating aspect of the disc is
merely an aesthetic side benet.
Diffraction involves the interference of light waves coming from different
parts of the same opening. Diffraction from a single slit produces a bright central
fringe with a series of weaker dark and light fringes on either side of the broader
central fringe. A circular aperture produces a bull's-eye pattern. Making the
aperture smaller causes the diffraction pattern to spread out, frustrating efforts to
narrow a beam of light. A diffraction grating is a multiple slit interference device
that allows us to separate and measure wavelengths of light.
Diffraction gratings are key components of monochromators used, for
example, in optical imaging of particular wavelengths from biological or medical
samples. A diffraction grating can be chosen to specically analyze a wavelength
emitted by molecules in diseased cells in a biopsy sample or to help excite strategic
molecules in the sample with a selected frequency of light. Another vital use is in
optical ber technologies where bers are designed to provide optimum
performance at specic wavelengths. A range of diffraction gratings are available
for selecting specic wavelengths for such use.