Lab 4: Diffraction of Light

1 Introduction

Refer to Appendix D for photos of the appara-

tus

Diffraction and interference are important phenomena

that distinguish waves from particles. Thomas Young
first demonstrated diffraction and interference of light
waves in 1801. In this lab, you will reproduce the Figure 1: Single slit diffraction.
following optical effects,

The diffraction pattern of a single slit a barrier or obstacle cuts off a portion of a wave-
front. Interference refers to superposition of two or
The interference-diffraction pattern of multiple more waves that meet at one point in space.
slits
Single-slit diffraction: When a collimated (paral-
Diffraction of light by a diffraction grating lel) beam of light is incident on an obstacle, or an aper-
ture, we normally expect to see nothing more than a
sharply defined shadow of the obstacle (or a bright
In the first part of the lab, you will use a Helium-Neon
spot that has the exact shape of the aperture). This
laser with a number of narrow slit arrangements to ob-
seems to hold true for macroscopic apertures. How-
serve and measure diffraction patterns. In the second
ever, there are a number of surprising effects that oc-
part, you will use an instrument called a spectrometer
cur when the dimensions of an obstacle become com-
to study the emission spectrum of Mercury gas from
parable with the wavelength of light. The diffraction
a high-voltage discharge tube. The spectrometer uses
pattern of a single slit is a good example.
a diffraction grating to separate spectral components
of light. A diffraction grating is a surface etched with
a large number of closely spaced parallel slits. To understand what a pattern produced by a single
slit looks like, we will first consider slits of different
size. If the slit width a is large, that is a >> , the
EXERCISES 1-7 PERTAIN TO THE EXPER-
diffraction effects will not be noticeable and the size
IMENTAL SECTIONS.
of the bright spot that is produced, will be directly
proportional to the size of the slit.

2 Background If the slit is smaller, that is, on the order of a num-

ber of wavelengths in size, we have to use Huygens
principle to determine what the resulting wavefront is
The phenomena of diffraction and interference are going to look like. According to Huygens principle,
not particular to light or to electromagnetic radia- we can approximate a particular wavefront by assum-
tion. Many examples of interference and diffraction of ing every point on it is a point source of light. In case
waves exist in everyday life. Some analogies are, for of a wide slit, we will look at the wavefront as it is
example, patterns formed by ripples on a smooth sur- just leaving the aperture.
face of a pond, or small water waves bending around
a rock in the middle of a calm lake. To find out what pattern will be observed on the
screen, we will consider the intensity of light that is
In basic terms, diffraction can be described as the emitted from a slit of width a at a particular angle to-
bending of waves around corners that occurs when wards a distant viewing screen. This angle, , is mea-

4.1
 tral maximum to the first diffraction minimum will
depend only on the width of the slit and the distance
between the slit and the screen. From figure 1, the
tangent of the angle is expressed as,

ym
tan = (3)
D

where D is the distance from the slit to the screen

and ym is distance from the central axis to the mth
diffraction minimum.
Figure 2: Single slit diffraction pattern and intensity profile.
Assuming D >> a, for small angles, tan sin ,
sured from the direction of the original light beam. D
is the distance from the slit to the screen. ym
sin (4)
D
Firstly, as one would expect, there will be an intensity
maximum in the forward direction ( 0). However,
intensity will not fall off smoothly with distance from Substituting equation 4 into equation 1, we get an
the center, but will have several additional maxima expression for distance from the center of the pattern
th
and minima (figure 1). For example, the intensity will to the m intensity minimum,
be brought to zero at angles corresponding to integer
values of m in the following formula (m can be both
positive or negative), mD
ym (5)
a

a sin = m (1) Two-slit interference: Two coherent sources can be

produced by using the two slit arrangement shown in
The pattern in figure 2 can be explained using in- figure 3. If the slits S1 and S2 have a width a that is
terference and path difference arguments. Consider much smaller than the wavelength of light (a << )
two point sources on the wavefront at the front of the the slits can be considered as two point sources of co-
slit, which are a distance a/2 apart. The difference in herent light. If the screen is placed at a distance D
distances from each pair of these point sources to a from the slits as shown in figure3 (D >> d), inter-
point on the screen D meters away will be (a sin )/2. ference fringes consisting of evenly spaced bright and
When this path difference equals an odd number m dark bands can be observed. The central fringe at
of half-wavelengths (m)/2, the waves emitted by the O is a bright fringe. Figure 3 shows the path of two
two sources will cancel, and no light will propagate in beams at a location P on the screen.
that direction (an intensity minimum).
The positions of the bright fringes are defined by the
In terms of displacement y from the central point on interference condition,
the viewing screen, the intensity can be expressed as,

d sin = n (6)
sin2 ( ay )
I= I0 ayD2 (2)
( D )
This condition corresponds to constructive interfer-
ence between the rays r1 and r2 in figure 3. In equa-
This equation is illustrated by the intensity curve tion 6 d is the spacing of the slits and n is the order
shown in figure 2. of the fringe (n is an integer). Similarly the positions
of the dark fringes (destructive interference between
Additionally, for a given , the distance from the cen- r1 and r2 ) is defined by the interference,

4.2
 P
4

r2
3
y
q r1 2
S2
q O
d

S1 b Figure 4: Intensity pattern on the screen due to 2,3 and 4 in-

phase sources (slits).
D

d, then the two electric field vectors are nearly parallel

and the resultant amplitude is given by,

Figure 3: Two-slit interference.

ER = E1 + E2 = 2E0 cos( ) sin(t + ) (12)
2 2
1
d sin = (n + ) (7) The maximum possible value for the amplitude is
2
2E0 cos( 2 ). Since the intensity is proportional to the
square of the amplitude of the electric field, the in-
From figure 3 the location of the nth maximum yn from tensity I at point P on the screen can be expressed
R
the central peak (located at = 0) can be expressed as,
as a function of the slit spacing d and the distance to
the screen D,

IR = 4I0 cos2 ( ) (13)
yn 2
tan sin = (8)
D
Here I0 is the intensity associated with a single source.
Substituting equation 8 into equation 6, the location
of the nth maximum is located at, Equation 13 can be expressed as a function of the
angle by recalling the relationship between and
the path difference between the two rays r1 and r2 at
nD P. Referring to figure 3, the path difference between
yn = (9)
d the two sources S1 and S2 is d sin . Since 2 = d sin


,
equation 13 becomes,
Equations 6 and 7, describe the location of the max-
ima and the minima of the interference pattern. They
d sin
do not describe the variation of the intensity as a func- IR = 4I0 cos2 ( ) (14)
tion of position. The intensity at any point P on the
screen is proportional to the square of the amplitude
of the resultant electric field. The electric field com- The functional form of this curve is labeled number 2
ponents of the two sources at point P (in figure 3) are in figure 4.
described by,
Effect of multiple slits: When the number of slits
increases, the intensity pattern includes secondary
E1 = E0 sin t (10) maxima (see curves labeled 3 and 4 in figure 4). How-
ever the location of the peaks remains unchanged.
The peak intensity of the primary maxima scales as
N 2 where N is the number of slits. The intensity of the
E2 = E0 sin(t + ) (11) secondary maxima are very small compared to the in-
tensity of the primary maxima. When the number of
Here is the angular frequency of the waves and is slits becomes very large (N >> 1) there is effectively
the phase difference between the two waves. If D >> no light in the region between the primary maxima.

4.3
 Incident
plane
Envelope wave Grating
Interference maxima
l2
given by, 2nd order
dsin(q) = nl l1
n=2
l2
1st order
Diffraction minima n=1 l1
given by, n=0
asin(q) = ml All l

n = -1 l1
l2
l1 < l2
n = -2 l1

l2
Equal mixture
of red and blue
l1 and l2

Figure 5: A two-slit diffraction pattern and intensity profile.

It is convenient to draw an envelope curve to understand the Figure 6: Diffraction grating.
pattern.
light will be diffracted more than blue light. The
This fact is important for the understanding the prin- entire spectrum will repeat in high orders (higher
ciples of a diffraction grating. n).
A diffraction grating should be designed so that
The patterns shown in figure 4 are derived from the even the higher orders (|n| > 0) can be observed
assumption that the slits are point sources of light, within the first set of minima (primary lobe) of
that is, they radiate light equally in all directions. the diffraction pattern shown in figure 5.
These idealized patterns repeat infinitely in all direc-
tions. As we have seen previously, in the case of a
finite single slit, the light is emitted in a non-uniformThus, if a light beam with a number of wavelengths
way, described by the intensity profile in Figure 2. strikes a diffraction grating, the wavelengths will sep-
For a distant screen case (D >> d), the pattern of arate so that they can be resolved at different angles.
the idealized double slit case (the curve marked 2 This fact is used for wavelength measurements, i.e.,
in Figure 4) will be modulated by the single-slit inten- for spectroscopy. For example, by passing the light
sity profile (the curve shown in Figure 2) to produce from a sample of electrically excited atoms through
a profile, which will be similar to the one in Figure 5. a diffraction grating, one will observe distinct inten-
sity maxima, called spectral lines. Each spectral line
Diffraction grating: A diffraction grating is a col- corresponds to a particular wavelength emitted by the
lection of a large number of regularly spaced narrow atoms. If the resolving power of the diffraction grating
slits. To better understand the properties of a diffrac- is sufficiently large, the spectral lines will be sharply
tion grating, remember that, defined and well separated as shown in figure 6.

There exists a simple relationship between the angles

The number of slits in the grating is very large, so and the wavelengths of the waves that are resolved by
the intensity maxima are very sharp and narrow. the diffraction grating,
The peak intensities are also much higher than in
the double slit case.
n
sin = (15)
The conditions for constructive interference are d
the same as those given in equation 6. However
the source in the experiment is not monochro- Here, d is the line spacing (distance between two lines)
matic (mercury gas discharge tube) and will now of the diffraction grating, is the angle measured be-
emit a number of discrete wavelengths. The ze- tween the diffracted beam and the direction of the
roth order (n = 0) corresponds to constructive in- incident (undiffracted) beam, n is the order number
terference of all the wavelengths from the source. of the particular spectral line and is the wavelength.
Longer wavelengths will have greater diffraction
angles than shorter wavelengths. For example, red Note that for most diffraction gratings, d1 is a large

4.4
number (for example, 10,000 lines/inch). This means OPTICAL COMPONENTS SHOULD BE
that the diffraction gratings strongly separate the dif- BLOCKED BY USING PIECES OF CARD-
ferent wavelengths, and are therefore well suited for BOARD THAT ARE PROVIDED. BE PAR-
spectroscopy. From equation 15, we can express the TICULARLY CAREFUL WHEN YOU IN-
wavelength of a particular diffracted beam as, SERT OR REMOVE LENSES INTO A
LASER BEAM.
d sin
= (16) DO NOT TOUCH THE OPTICAL SUR-
n FACES OF LENSES AND MIRRORS. IF
THE SURFACES ARE UNCLEAN, PLEASE
BRING IT TO THE ATTENTION OF THE
3 Suggested Reading TA IMMEDIATELY.

USE THE TRANSPARENT LENS TISSUES

Refer to the chapters on Diffraction & Interference, TO DETECT THE BEAMS.

D. Halliday, R. Resnick and K. S. Krane, Physics MAKE SURE ALL MOUNTS ARE SE-
(Volume 2, 5th Edition, John Wiley, 2002) CURELY FASTENED ON THE OPTICAL
TABLE.

4 Apparatus
5 Experiment I: Diffraction from
Helium - Neon laser on a stand, with power source Multiple Slits
Glass plate with single and multiple slits
Glass slide with single slits with different widths In the first experiment, you will determine the width
a and spacing d of a set of slits by observing their
Diffraction grating diffraction patterns using a He-Ne laser. The equip-
Mercury gas discharge tube ment for these experiments consists of a laser light
source on a stand and a holder with an opaque glass
Spectrometer plate marked Single and multiple slits. The plate
Black cloth to shield the spectrometer is etched with a number of slits. The number of slits
varies between N = 1 and N = 6. However the slit
Ruler width and slit spacing remain unchanged. Note the
single slit aperture is marked 1, the two-slit aper-
Meter stick ture is marked 2 and so on.
Magnifying glass to read the angular Vernier scale
Before proceeding with your measurements, remem-
ber to minimize error by choosing sensible parame-
WARNING!!: KEEP TRACK OF YOUR ter combinations. For example, set up the slit and
LASER BEAM AT ALL TIMES. NEVER the viewing screen as far apart as possible to increase
POINT THE BEAM AT PEOPLE, OR LOOK your precision, but without significantly diminishing
IN THE APERTURE OF THE LASER OR BE the brightness of the diffraction pattern.
AT EYELEVEL WITH THE BEAM.
Single slit diffraction: Set up the laser and the glass
KEEP EYES AWAY FROM DIRECT OR plate containing the slits on their respective mounts.
REFLECTED LASER BEAMS. OTHERWISE Make sure that the glass plate is horizontal and that
SERIOUS EYE DAMAGE WILL OCCUR. the laser beam is perpendicular (normal) to the glass
plate by sending the reflected part of the beam close to
YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF WHERE the laser cavity. Direct the beam through the center
THE LASER BEAMS STRIKE OPTICAL of the vertical aperture marked 1 (the single slit) to-
COMPONENTS. REFLECTIONS FROM wards the viewing screen, located at the opposite side

4.5
of the table. Fine-adjust the position of the slit to getExercise 5: Slide each slit into the laser beam, and
a clear picture of the diffraction pattern. Normally, measure the width of the central intensity maximum.
the position of maximum brightness will be optimal How does the single slit diffraction pattern change as
for observing the pattern. the width of the slit increases? Calculate the aver-
age value of the wavelength of the laser using your
Exercise 1: Sketch the pattern that you observe on measurements and the known slit widths.
the screen, and its intensity profile. Attach a sheet of
graph paper to the viewing screen, and mark the po- Exercise 6: Describe the effects of varying a, d, n
sition of the intensity minima and maxima. Find the and on the pattern observed.
width of the central intensity maximum by measuring
the distance between two minima closest to the cen- Exercise 7: Insert the 15000 lines/inch grating into
ter. One half of that number will give you the distance the holder and position it so that it is normal to the
between the center of the pattern and the first diffrac- laser beam. Sketch and describe the diffraction pat-
tion minimum. Measure the distance D between the tern. Calculate the angle by which the first order
glass plate and the screen. Using equation 5, calcu- beam is diffracted. Is your measurement consistent
late the width of the slit. Propagate the errors in the with the angle that you expect based on equation 15?
measured quantities to find the error in the slit width. Repeat using the 7500 lines/inch grating.
Assume that the wavelength of the Laser is 632.8 nm.
Note: Once you have completed the experi-
Interference pattern of two and more slits: Slide ment, please remove all optical elements from
the glass plate on the holder so that the laser beam their mounts and place them on the table.
passes through the aperture labeled 2. The pattern
you observe will be more complicated than in the pre-
vious case. It corresponds to a superposition of two
single-slit diffraction patterns. 6 Experiment II: Spectroscopy of
Exercise 2: Sketch the pattern that you observe
Mercury Using a Diffraction Grat-
on the screen. Measure the spacing y between the ing
bright spots on the screen. A good technique is to
count off as many as you can see in row, and mea-
sure the total length of the group. This is possible In the second part, you will perform spectroscopy of
because the screen is far away from the slits, and so mercury vapor by setting up and aligning the spec-
the maxima are evenly spaced. Find the spacing be- trometer, and then measuring the angles at which the
tween the two slits, d, by adapting the formulae given mercury spectral lines are observed.
in the background section.
The spectrometer and the diffraction grating:
Exercise 3: Repeat the measurements for slits 3, For this part of the experiment, you will set up and use
4 and 5 by simply sliding each slit in front a diffraction grating spectrometer. The spectrometer
of the laser beam. Tabulate your results in a table. collimates the light from the mercury gas discharge
tube. The collimated beam passes through a diffrac-
Exercise 4: What are the similarities and differences tion grating. A telescope is used to observe the spec-
between patterns for the different number of slits? tral lines at various angular positions. These angular
State your observations based on your sketches of the positions correspond to the locations of the intensity
patterns. As the number of slits is increased, does the maxima given by equation 15. The angular positions
position of the interference maxima change? can be noted on a Vernier scale.

Interference pattern of different slit widths: In Your objective is to measure the angles at which the
this part you will be using a set of single slits with diffracted beams leave the diffraction grating. Due to
different widths. With help from the TA, replace the symmetry, the pattern of lines is going to be repeated
glass plate containing the slits with the glass slide con- on both sides of the central maximum. You can use
taining the set of single slits. this fact to simplify the measurement and reduce the
error: measure the angles between pairs of lines of the
same color and order (see figure 7). One-half of each

4.6
 Mercury Lamp
Table 1:
Order (n) Color (o ) error nm error
Diffraction Collimator
Grating

Telescope Table 2: Mercury spectral lines wavelengths in Angstroms A

Wavelength in Angstroms
5791
q 5770
5461
4358
First Order Lines 4046
Second Order Lines
Figure 7. A diffraction grating spectrometer

While looking through the telescope eyepiece,

Figure 7: A diffraction grating spectrometer.
maximize the brightness of the slit by carefully
moving the discharge tube in front of the slit.
of these angles will correspond to the diffraction angle
. Use the ring on the eyepiece of the telescope to
bring the crosshairs in focus.
You can get a feel for how a diffraction grating works Find the colored spectral line images by turning
by taking it out of the spectrometer and observing the telescope. By slightly rotating the diffraction
different light sources, including the discharge tube, grating make sure the spectral lines are in the cen-
through the grating. Verify the well-known statement ter of the view of the telescope. This ensures that
that white light is in fact a mixture of different wave- the lines of the grating are vertical
lengths, by observing one of the fluorescent ceiling
lamps.
Prepare a table with columns similar to table 1. Prop-
Insert the grating (with its rulings vertical) agate the uncertainties to find the error in the wave-
into the grating holder of the spectrometer and length of the mercury line.
make sure that its surface is perpendicular to
the direction of incoming light from the colli- Exercise 8: Take measurements of the angles at
mator (see figure 7). which the spectral lines are observed for all the or-
ders that you can see. Make sure to distinguish be-
Align the spectrometer by carrying out the following tween lines of different order (n = 1, 2, 3, etc). Use
steps, equation 15 and the value of d for the grating (you
have choice of two gratings with d1 = 15000 lines/inch
and d2 = 7500 lines/inch) to find the wavelength of
Focus the telescope on a distant object, such as a each line. Average your results, and report the av-
wall on the other side of the lab. erage wavelengths of the spectral lines in Angstroms.
Include the error with your measurement. Find the
Open the slit of the collimator. percentage error between your measurements and the
Position the operating discharge tube near the col- wavelengths of the spectral lines given in table 2.
limators slit.
Your lab report should include:
Find the bright, central image of the slit by po-
sitioning the telescope along the axis of the colli- Answers to exercises 1-8 with relevant data tables,
mator. graphs, figures and qualitative comments.

Use the translation screws on the collimator and Refer to Appendix C for Maple worksheets.
the telescope to make the image of the illuminated
slit as sharp as possible.

4.7