Course No.

PHY- 2111(B), Basic Electronics and Optics, Chemistry Discipline, KU

Chapter - 7
Diffraction

Md. Shohel Parvez

Lecturer
Physics Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna
Diffraction
When waves encounter obstacles (or opening), they bend round the
edge of the obstacles, if the dimensions of the obstacles are comparable
to the wavelength of the waves. The bending of waves around the edges
of an obstacle is called diffraction.
Diffraction refers to various phenomena that occur when a wave
encounters an obstacle or a slit. It is defined as the bending of light
around the corners of an obstacle or aperture into the region of
geometrical shadow of the obstacle.
Diffraction occurs with all waves, including sound waves, water
waves, and electromagnetic waves such as visible light, X-rays and radio
waves.
Finally we say that diffraction is the spreading of waves that happens
when it passes through a narrow opening or when it passes round a small
obstacles along its path.
Characteristics of Diffraction
When diffraction occurs;
1. Wave direction changes
2. Wave velocity (v) changes
3. Wavelengths (λ) unchanged
4. Frequency (f) unchanged
5. Speed unchanged.
Types of Diffraction
Diffraction patterns are classified into two categories on which
source and screen are placed.
i. Fresnel diffraction.
ii. Fraunhofer diffraction.
Fresnel Diffraction
In this type of diffraction, the source of light and the screen are
effectively at finite distances from the obstacle (Fig.). It is also called
near-field diffraction.
In other words when either the source or the screen is near the
aperture or obstacle, the wavefronts are spherical and the pattern is quite
complex. This is called the Fresnel diffraction.

Observation of Fresnel diffraction

phenomena does not require any lenses.
The incident wave front is not planar. As
a result, the phase of secondary wavelets
is not the same at all points in the plane
of the obstacle. The resultant amplitude at any point of the screen is
obtained by the mutual interference of secondary wavelets from different
elements of unblocked portions of wave front.
Fraunhofer Diffraction:
In his type of diffraction, the source of light and the screen are
effectively at infinite distances from the obstacle.
Or, when both source and screen are placed at a greater distance from
the aperture, the incident light planes waves and the rays leaving the
opening are parallel. This is called the Fraunhofer diffraction.
Fraunhofer diffraction pattern can be easily observed in practice. The
conditions required for Fraunhofer diffraction are achieved using two
convex lenses, one to make the light from the source parallel and the
other to focus the light after diffraction on to the screen (Fig.). The
diffraction is thus produced by the interference between parallel rays.
The incident wave front as such is plane and the secondary wavelets,
which originate from the unblocked portions of the wave front, are in the
same phase at every point in the plane of the obstacle.
This problem is simple to handle mathematically because the rays are
parallel. The incoming light is rendered parallel with a lens and
diffracted beam is focused on the screen with another lens.
. Diffraction by a circular aperture
In fig. S is a point source of a monochromatic light, AB is the
circular aperture and P is point on the screen
 
O is the center of the circular aperture. The line SOP is perpendicular
to the circular aperture AB and the screen at P. The screen is
perpendicular to the plane of the paper.
Let δ be the path difference for the wave reaching P along the paths
SAP and SOP.
 

If the position of the screen is such that n full number of half period
zones can be constructed on the aperture, then the path difference,

2δ
Substituting the value of 2δ in equation (1), we get,
 
The point P will be of maximum or minimum intensity depending on
whether n is odd or even. If the source is at infinite distance (for an
incident plane wave front), then and

If n is odd, P will be bright point. The idea of focus at P does not mean
that it is always a bright point.
Fraunhofer diffraction at a circular aperture
In fig. AB is a circular aperture diameter d. C is the center of the
aperture and P is a point on the screen. CP is perpendicular to the screen.
The screen is perpendicular to the plane of the paper. A plane wave front
is incident on the circular aperture. The secondary wave travelling in the
 
direction CO comes to the focus at P. therefore, P corresponds to the
position of the central maximum. Here, all the secondary waves
emanating from points equidistant from O travel the same distance
before reaching P and hence they all reinforce one another. Now, let us
consider the secondary waves travelling in a direction inclined at an
angle θ with the direction CP. All these secondary waves meet at on the
screen. Let the distance be x .
 
The path difference between the secondary waves emanating from
points B and A is AD
From the ΔABD,
Now point will be of minimum intensity if this path difference is
equal to integral multiples of λ, i. e.,

The point will be of maximum intensity if the path difference is

equal to odd multiples of

If is the point of minimum intensity, then all points at the same

distance from P as and lying on a circle of radius x will be of minimum
intensity. Thus, the diffraction pattern due to a circular
 
aperture consists on a central disc called the Airy’s disc, surrounded
by alternate dark and bright concentric rings called the Airy’s rings. The
intensity of the dark ring is zero and that of the bright rings decreases
gradually outwards from P. Further, if the collecting lens is very near the
slit or when the screen is at a large distance from the lens,

Also, for the first secondary minimum,

From equation (3) and (4)

 

Where x is the radius of the Airy’s disc. But actually, the radius of the
first dark ring is slightly more than that given by equation (5). According
to Airy, it is given by

The discussion on the intensity distribution of the bright and dark ring is
similar to the one given for a rectangular slit. With increase in diameter
of the aperture, the radius of the central bright ring decrease.
Plane diffraction grating
A diffraction grating is an extremely useful device and in one of its
forms it consists of a very large number of narrow slits side by side. The
slits are separated by opaque spaces. When a wave front is incident on a
grating surface, light is transmitted through the slits and obstructed by
the opaque portions. Such a grating is called a transmission grating. The
secondary waves from the positions of the slits interfere with one
another, similar to the interference of waves in Young’s experiment.
Joseph Fraunhofer used the first grating which consisted of a large
number of parallel fine wires stretched on a frame. Now grating are
prepared by ruling equidistant parallel lines on a glass surface. The lines
are drawn with a fine diamond point. The space in between any two lines
 is transparent to light and the lined portion is opaque to light. Such
surfaces act as transmission gratings. If on the other hand the lines are
drawn with on a silvered surface ( plane or concave) then light is
reflected from the positions of the mirror in between any two lines and
such surfaces act as reflection grating.
If the spacing between the lines is of the order of the wavelength of
light, then an appreciable deviation of the light is produced. Gratings
used for the study of the visible region of spectrum contain 10000 lines
per cm. Gratings with originally ruled surfaces are only few. For
practical purposes, replicas of the original grating are prepared. On the
original grating surface a thin layer of collodion is removed from the
grating surface and then fixed between two glass plates.
 This serve as a plane transmission grating. A large number of replicas
are prepared in this way from a single original ruled surface.
Theory of Plane Transmission Grating
In fig. XY is the grating surface and MN is the screen both
perpendicular to the plane of the paper. The slits are parallel to one
another and perpendicular to the plane of the paper.
 Here AB is the slit and BC is an opaque portion. The width of each
slit is a and the opaque spacing between any two consecutive slit is b.
Let a plane wave front be incident on the grating surface. Then all the
secondary waves travelling in the same directions as that of the incident
light will come to focus at the point P on the screen. The screen is placed
at the focal plane of the collecting lens. The point P where all the
secondary wave reinforce one another corresponds to the position of the
central bright maximum.

Now consider the secondary waves travelling in a direction inclined

at an angle θ with the direction of the incident light. The collecting lens
also is suitably rotated such that the axis of the lens is parallel to the
 
direction of the secondary waves. These secondary waves come to
focus at point on the screen. The intensity at will depend on the path
difference between the secondary waves originating from the
corresponding points A and C of two neighbouring slits. In fig. and .
The path difference between the secondary waves starting from A and C
is equal to AC sinθ.
 

The point will be of maximum intensity if this path difference is equal

to integral multiples of λ where λ is the wavelength of light. In this case,
all the secondary waves originating from the corresponding points of the
neighbouring slits reinforce one another and the angle θ gives the
direction of maximum intensity. In general

Where is the direction of the principal maximum. Putting the angles

etc. corresponding to the directions of the principal maximum can be
obtained.
If the incident light consists of more than one wavelength, the beam gets
 
dispersed and the angles of diffraction for different wavelengths will be
different. Let λ and λ + dλ be two nearby wavelengths present in the
incident light and θ and (θ+dθ) be the angles of diffraction corresponding
to these two wavelengths. Then for the first order principal maxima

Thus in any order, the number of principal maxima corresponds to the

number of wavelengths present. A number of parallel slit images
corresponding to the different wavelengths will be observed on the
screen. In equation (1) gives the direction of the first order image, gives
the direction of the second order image and so on. When white light is
used, the diffraction pattern on the screen consists of a
 
white central bright maximum and on both sides of this maximum a
spectrum corresponding to the different wavelengths of light present in
the incident beam will be observed in each other.
Secondary maxima and minima
The angle of diffraction corresponding to the direction of the
principal maximum is given by the equation

In this equation, is called the grating constant. For a grating with

15,000 lines/inch, the value of
 
Now, let the angle of diffraction be increased by a small amount such
that the path difference between the secondary waves from the points A
and C increases by (Fig.). Here N is the total number of lines on the
grating surface. Then, the path difference between the secondary waves
from the extreme points of the grating surface will be Assuming the
whole wave front to be divided into two halve, the path difference
between the corresponding points of the two halves will be and all the
secondary waves cancel one another's effect. Thus, will give the
direction of the first secondary minimum after the primary maximum.
Similarly, if the path difference between the secondary waves from the
points A and C is etc. for gradually increasing values of , these angles
corresponds to the
 
directions of etc. secondary minima after the primary maximum. If the
value is then the path difference between the secondary waves from the
extreme points of the grating surface is and considering the wave front
to be divided into 4 portions, the concept of the secondary minimum can
be understood. The number of secondary minima in between any two
primary maxima is and the number of secondary maxima is .
 
The intensity distribution on the screen is shown in Fig. P corresponds to
the position of the central maxima and 1, 2, etc. on the two sides of p
represent the etc. principal maxima. a, b, etc. are secondary maxima and
d, e etc. are the secondary minima. The intensity as well as angular
spacing of the secondary maxima and minima is so small in comparison
to the principal maxima that they can not be observed. It results in
uniform darkness between any two principal maxima.

Width of principle maxima

The direction of the nth principle maxima is given by
sinnλ ………(1)
Let + and - give the directions of the 1st secondary minima on the two
sides of the nth primary maxima. Then
 

Where is the total number of the lines on the grating surface.

 
Dividing (2) by (1)

 
Expanding this equation ,we get
 
For small values of d ;Cos d =1 and Sin d = d

Therefore
In equation (4) d refers to half the angular width of the principle
maxima. The half width d is (i) inversely proportional to N , the total
numbers of lines and (ii) inversely proportional to . The value of is more
for higher orders because the increase in the value of is less than the
increase of the order. Thus the half width of the principle maximum is
less
 
for higher order. Also the larger the number of lines of grating surface,
the smaller is less the value d. Further the value is higher for longer
wavelengths and hence the spectral lines are sharper towards the violet
than the red end of the spectrum.
Dispersive power of grating
Dispersive of a grating is defined as the ratio of the difference in the
angle of diffraction of any two neighbouring spectral lines to the
difference in wavelength between the two spectral lines. It can also be
defined as the difference in the angle of diffraction per unit change in
wavelength. The diffraction of the order principle maximum for a
wavelength λ ,is given by the equation
 
Differentiating this equation with respect to and , we get

From equation (1) it is clear that the dispersive power of the grating (i)
directly proportional to the order of the spectrum, n (ii) directly
proportional to the number of lines per cm, and (iii) inversely
proportional to . Thus the angular spacing of any two spectral lines is
double in the second order spectrum than that is the 1st order. Secondly,
the angular dispersion of the line is more with a grating having a large
number of lines per cm. Thirdly, the angular dispersion is a minimum
when If the value of is not large, the value of can be taken as unity and
the influence of this factor can be neglected.
 
Then it is clear that the angular dispersion of any two spectral lines is
directly proportional to the difference in wavelength of the spectral lines.
A spectrum of this type is called normal dispersion.
If the linear spacing of two spectral lines of wavelength λ and is in
the focal plane of the telescope objective or photographic plate, then

Where is the focal length of the object. The linear dispersion is

The linear dispersion is useful in studying the photograph of a

spectrum.
Resolving power
When two objects or their images are very close to each other, they
appear as one and it may not be possible for the eye to see them as
separate. If the objects are not seen separately, then we say that the
details are not resolved by the eye. Optical instruments are used to assist
the eye in resolving the objects or images. The method adapted to seeing
the close objects as separate objects is called resolution. The ability of an
optical instrument to produce distinctly separate images of two objects
located very close to each other is called resolving power. We use the
term resolving power in two different senses.
 In case of microscope and telescope, we talk of geometrical
resolution where the geometrical positions between two nearby objects
are to be resolved and in case of spectroscope we refer to spectral
resolution where differences of wavelengths of light in a given source
are to be resolved. Resolving power is normally defined as the reciprocal
of the smallest angle subtended at the objective of optical instrument by
two point objects, which can just be distinguished as separate.

THANK YOU
Phy-2111(ZTN) Topics: 1.
Diffraction by a circular aperture.
2. Fraunhofer diffraction at a
circular aperture. 3. Plane
diffraction grating. 4. Theory of
plane transmission grating. 5.
Dispersive power of grating. 6.
Resolving power.
Submission:17/09/2020