Diffraction: Diffraction Refers To Various Phenomena
Diffraction: Diffraction Refers To Various Phenomena
Examples
Mechanism
Diffraction of light
Some examples of diffraction of light are
considered below.
Single-slit diffraction
ff f l h h
Diffraction of a scalar wave passing through a 1-
wavelength-wide slit
difference is approximately so
where
where
given by if ,
and
Diffraction grating
A diffraction grating is an optical
component with a regular pattern. The
form of the light diffracted by a grating
depends on the structure of the elements
and the number of elements present, but
all gratings have intensity maxima at
angles θm which are given by the grating
equation
where
Now, since
and
the expression for the Fraunhofer region
field from a planar aperture now becomes,
Letting,
and
Diffraction-limited imaging
The Airy disk around each of the stars from the 2.56 m
telescope aperture can be seen in this lucky image of
the binary star zeta Boötis.
The ability of an imaging system to resolve
detail is ultimately limited by diffraction.
This is because a plane wave incident on a
circular lens or mirror is diffracted as
described above. The light is not focused
to a point but forms an Airy disk having a
central spot in the focal plane with radius
to first null of
Speckle patterns
Babinet's Principle
Patterns
Particle diffraction
Quantum theory tells us that every particle
exhibits wave properties. In particular,
massive particles can interfere and
therefore diffract. Diffraction of electrons
and neutrons stood as one of the powerful
arguments in favor of quantum
mechanics. The wavelength associated
with a particle is the de Broglie wavelength
Bragg diffraction
Following Bragg's law, each dot (or reflection) in this
where
λ is the wavelength,
d is the distance between crystal planes,
θ is the angle of the diffracted wave.
and m is an integer known as the order
of the diffracted beam.
Coherence
The description of diffraction relies on the
interference of waves emanating from the
same source taking different paths to the
same point on a screen. In this description,
the difference in phase between waves
that took different paths is only dependent
on the effective path length. This does not
take into account the fact that waves that
arrive at the screen at the same time were
emitted by the source at different times.
The initial phase with which the source
emits waves can change over time in an
unpredictable way. This means that waves
emitted by the source at times that are too
far apart can no longer form a constant
interference pattern since the relation
between their phases is no longer time
independent.[17]:919
The length over which the phase in a beam
of light is correlated, is called the
coherence length. In order for interference
to occur, the path length difference must
be smaller than the coherence length. This
is sometimes referred to as spectral
coherence, as it is related to the presence
of different frequency components in the
wave. In the case of light emitted by an
atomic transition, the coherence length is
related to the lifetime of the excited state
from which the atom made its
transition.[18]:71–74[19]:314–316
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Diffraction.
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Last edited 19 days ago by Yeenosa…