Light Diffraction

Wavelength measuring by diffraction grating

1. Purpose of the paper

A. Qualitative goal: to highlight the diffraction phenomenon1
suffered by a beam of light when passing through a diffraction
network.

B. Quantitative target: experimentally determine the

wavelength of the light radiation.
2. Theory
Diffraction is a complex phenomenon of coherent radiation
composition from multiple sources in space. Essentially, it
represents the ensemble of phenomena due to the wave nature of
the wave, phenomena that appear to propagate it in an
environment with very pronounced heterogeneous characteristics.
In a narrow sense, diffraction is the phenomenon of apparently
bypassing light-weight obstacles.
The slit is a transparent light portion of rectangular shape with a
much smaller width than the length l << L (Fig. 1). The direction
along which the diffraction phenomenon is noticeable is one,
namely Ox; for this reason, the network
is a one-dimensional network.
The period of the network is the
distance between two successive slots:
a=l+b
b is the size of the opaque section.
If a monochromatic wave is incident on a diffraction network, a
complex phenomenon occurs: the diffraction of the light produced
by each slot and the light interference from all the slots. At a
sufficiently large distance, one can see an image characterized by
successive maxima and minima.
a
The base equation of this experiment is λ= sin α n
n

where n is the order of a maximum and a is the angle of the

diffracted wave with respect to the grating’s normal.

3. Description of experimental plant

The experimental device comprises a goniometer provided with
a collimator C and a rear-view mirror L. In the center of the
goniometer, a diffraction grating R is fixed on a round table.
The light source is either a mercury
vapor lamp or an electric bulb; In the
latter case, a monochromatic filter is
fixed in the collimator. The light enters
the collimator through a F-shaped
rectangular, vertical, parallel to the
grids of the grid. The observation is
made in the focal plane of the rear lens of the rear window, where
the main interference peaks appear in the form of bright lines,
pictures of the F slot.

4. Experimental procedure
a. Study the graded circle and the vernier V
and determine the reading precision of the angles
b. Verify that the grid is perpendicular to the direction of the light
beam coming out of the collimator. Adjust the slot so that the
observed peaks are vertical and narrowest; the image quality is
achieved by moving the lens of the windshield L.
If the light source emits multiple spectral lines (monochromatic
radiation), as in the case of mercury vapor, the most intense, zero-
order maximum is white; the highest order nodes (n = 1,2,3, ...),
for each color, are symmetrical to the zero order maximum.
c. The measurement of the angle is done by reading the angular
coordinates of the same order
maximum, both at the left and at
the right of the central maximum.
The sight is rotated to both left and
right positions of the maximum
and the reticular wire is placed at
the centre of a certain colour, then
the angles are written down.

5. Final results are written in a table.