Experiment 10

Diffraction
Introduction
This week’s lab covers interference and diffraction. There are two sections
to the lab. In Part 1, you will be studying Fresnel diffraction and in Part 2, you
will look at Fraunhofer diffraction.

Fresnel Diffraction
This part has two sections. In the first section you will study Fresnel diffrac-
tion by a single straight edge and in the second section you will study diffraction
by a single slit.

1 Edge Diffraction
Procedure
• To start, place a laser with a spatial filter at one end of the optical bench.
The filter is to ensure that no off axis modes from the laser are in the
beam. This is important whenever the laser beam needs to be spatially
coherent. That means that we want the beam to appear as if it comes
from a point source. The spatial filter will be adjusted by your instructor
before lab. Be careful! A slight bump can put it out of alignment. Since
the filter works by focusing the beam through a 1 micron pinhole, you can
guess how much fun it is to realign.

• Place a razor blade in the center of the beam and position it exactly 40cm
from the spatial filter. Try not to cut yourself.
• Exactly 40cm beyond the razor blade place a photodiode which is mounted
on a scanning motor that scans perpendicular to the beam. The diode will
record the intensity of light as a function of distance. Record your data
on the computer. The shadow of the razor blade should fall in the middle
of the diode travel.
• Make a test scan of the shadow.Make sure you have a good clean pattern.
If not, ask your instructor to help you adjust the amplifier gain or the
slits. You will then be ready to record your data.
• Now begin scanning the pattern. The diode should start in the dark part
of the shadow. Stop after about 10 maxima.
• After the scan is complete, record the distance from the spatial filter to
the razor blade.

• Record the distance from the razor blade to the slits on the diode.

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 • Measure and record the scanning speed of the diode.
• Make sure you record sufficient information about the scan. This should
include the words “Razor Blade” (or “Single Edge”) and the distance of
the razor blade from the laser and diode (since you are about to make a
similar scan with different distances).
• Now move the razor toward the slits by exactly 10cm and repeat this
procedure.

Analysis Given the distance from the spatial filter to razor (a) and the dis-
tance from the razor to slits (b), calculate the position (in the plane of the
photodiode) of the first two maxima and the first minimum of the diffraction
pattern. You must use the Cornu spiral to do this.
If you have questions about using Cornu’s spiral to make these calculations,
ask your instructor. Look in Jenkins and White, 4th Ed., Sections 18.6–18.14
for details. The spiral and accompanying table are in Section 18.10. Note: Use
Eq. 18o to get the linear displacement in the plane of the diode slits or to get v
in terms of this displacement. Now from your data, calculate the position of the
first three maxima and minima. Compare the theory and experimental results;
they should be within 5 percent. If not, you are probably doing something
wrong.
• What have you noticed about the two diffraction curves? Is there a rele-
vant scaling parameter?

2 Single Slit
Procedure Now measure the intensity in the diffraction pattern of a single
slit. Replace the razor blade with a single slit. You will use the slits on an
Ealing slitfilm for this section. It may be useful to use the variable slit to help
isolate the illumination on the desired Ealing slit. Keep the variable slit as wide
as possible and check to be sure the diffraction fringes from the edge of the
variable slit do not fall on the Ealing slit.

• Place the (1,16,–) slit 40cm from the laser.

• Record the diffraction pattern. The procedure is similar to the one above.
Since the pattern is symmetric, it does not matter which side of the pattern
you start on.

• Record a and b and the slit size.

• Replace the slit with the (1,32,–) slit and repeat.
• Now move the slit 5cm toward the diode.

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 • Repeat the measurement. Be sure to label each scan. Be sure that you
understand the notation on the Ealing slit set that you have used for this
part of the experiment. Be sure that you have recorded the speed of the
photodiode for each scan.

• What do you notice about the two diffraction curves? What are the rele-
vant scaling parameters?
• Now record the the diffraction pattern of an opaque object. Replace the
slits with a pin or needle.

• Scan the shadow and record the pattern on the computer. This is an
observation and there are no calculations.

Analysis Using the speed of the diode,calculate a distance scale for your data.
From the width of the slit, calculate ∆v, a, b. For those who are ambitious, you
can calculate the theoretical diffraction pattern using Cornu’s spiral.
Note: positions of maxima and minima are to be reported in the plane of
the photodiode.

Fraunhofer Diffraction
Now you will measure the Fraunhofer diffraction pattern of several different
slits.

Procedure
• Place a copy lens in front of the spatial filter. Take the diode and the
scanning motor off the optical bench. Adjust the distance of the lens from
the spatial filter so that you have a beam of light that remains the same
diameter from the lens to the wall on the other side of the room. This
means the beam of light is parallel. Replace the diode and the motor.
• Next place a cylindrical lens about 29cm from the photodiode. Move the
lens so that the light is focused to a sharp vertical line.

• Now place a single slit in the middle of the beam between the two lenses.
Use set A, pattern D, (A,D) of the Pasco Electroformed slits.
• Measure the distance from the cylindrical lens to the diode.
• Now run a test scan to adjust the gain of the diode amplifier. It will need
to be adjusted, so ask your instructor for help with this.
• After you have a good pattern, record it on the computer.
• Now repeat the scan for each of the following slits:
(A,D) (A,B) (B,A) (B,C) (B,D) (C,B) (C,D).

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 Table of Pasco Electroformed slits
Set Pattern # slits Width(mm) Spacing(mm)

A B 1 .04
A D 1 .16

B A 2 .04 .250
B C 2 .08 .250
B D 2 .08 .500

C B 3 .04 .125
C D 5 .04 .125

Analysis Describe and explain the trends you see in the series of diffraction
patterns. What determines whether this experiment is in the Fresnel or Fraun-
hofer regime?