DIFFRACTION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my teachers for their constant support without
which I would not have been able to push myself out of my comfort zone. The topics were very
interesting and informative. I loved the idea of learning new things that will help us in the near
future. I would like to thank my Physics teachers, Suvosri Ma’am and Debabrata Sir for
guiding me through the project and allowing me to research about the given topic. I would also
like to thank my parents for providing me with the necessary things that helped me make this
project.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to our Principal, Seema Sapru Ma’am, our co-
ordinator, Anil Jha Sir and our Headmaster, Darryl Christensen Sir who provided us with the
necessary facilities.
INDEX
 INTRODUCTION
The phenomena that occur when a wave encounters an object or a certain aperture
is called diffraction. It is the bending of light waves passing through a narrow opening into the
geometric shadow region of an object. In simple words, when light passes through a very narrow
opening and falls on an object or a screen, it should be confined to a very small area. But that is not the
case. Due to the narrow aperture, the light waves bend/diffract and a few rays of light are scattered and
fall on the geometric shadow region of the object on which it falls. Diffraction can be explained by using
many examples, though light contributes as a major part of it.

This figure is a perfect explanation

as to how diffraction works in
everyday life. The water is
entering the region through a narrow
opening and the waves formed do
not move in a straight line. Instead,
the waves scatter themselves.

Similarly, the surface of CDs and DVDs are optical components which support diffraction grating, i.e.,
scattering of light into its compositional colours and diffracting them into different directions. This is the
reason why we see multiple colours while rotating them in our hands. This idea can be further used to
engineer diffracting the lights in desired directions which help in the formation of holograms.

Another example is that of a laser beam in a dark room.

In the figure, a green laser beam is emitted from a prominent source
and with our bare eyes, we can see the beam moving in a straight
line but when we look atthe object it falls on, the green colour of
the light is not confined to that little region of the incident beam. In
fact it seems to have scattered in different directions which enable
us to see the nearby objects too. This is due to the presence of dust
particles a few light rays encounter before falling on the object.

The following experiment will make it very easy to understand how diffraction works. In the
experiment, we need a clamp stand with a laser emitter. The laser beam is made to fall on a white screen
(Fig I). Then we bring a very narrow string (about 50 microns in diameter) in between the path of the
laser beam(Fig II). We observe on the screen that the point where the beam fell at first was still there as
it was. But, there were bands of successive shadow and light regions on the left and right side of the
original light beam on the screen(Fig III). The shadow regions formed are the size of the diameter of the
string.
Such a phenomenon occurs because when the light beam falls on the string, rays of light are diffracted in
directions equidistant to each other to the left and right of the string.

Fig I Fig II Fig III Fig IV

 DISCOVERY
Italian scientist, Francesco Maria Grimaldi was the first to use the term diffraction (from the Latin
word, ‘diffringere’, which means ‘break into pieces’) and accurately use it in his observations. He
introduced bright sunlight in a dark room via a small hole of about 1/60th inch across. The light which
entered the room was in the shape of a cone which was made
to fall on a screen at an angle so as to obtain an elliptical
figure. Then, about ten to twenty feet away from the narrow
slit, he introduced a narrow, opaque rod in the path of the
conical shaped light in order to obtain its shadow on the
screen . He observed that the shadow of the rod was unclear
and that the size of the shadow of the rod was unlike how it
should have been in case of a rectilinear path of light. He
also noticed that there were external diffraction bands of
light and shadow regions. These bands were never more than
three and the intensity as well as width of the bands increased
near the shadow region. The one nearest to the shadow is a
wide white band with a narrow violet band nearer to the
shadow and a narrow red band away from it.

In his second experiment, he allowed a cone of light to pass

through two parallel orifices, the first being 1/60 inch and
the second being 1 /10 inch in diameter. The distances
between the holes and between the screen and second hole
were equal, at least twelve feet each. The screen was placed
parallel to the orifices. The circle of light falling on the
screen was observed to be significantly wider than rectilinear FRANCESCO MARIA
propagation allows as predicted by the theory of geometrical GRIMALDI
optics.

Later, James Gregory discovered diffraction grating by passing sunlight through a bird feather which
caused the light to split into its component colours and a year later, Isaac Newton performed a similar
experiment using a prism.

Thomas Young performed an experiment demonstrating

interference from two closely placed slits from which he
concluded that light must travel in the form of waves.
Augustin-Jean Fresnel and Christiaan Huygens further
studied and gave support to the wave theory of light which
was also reinvigorated by Thomas Young, against Isaac
Newton’s particle theory. Christiaan Huygens principle
however was unable to explain the diffraction effects of
light. He said that diffraction occurs because of the
interference of wavefronts. When light is pushed through a
small slit, waves are pushed together at different angles and this creates fringes of light and dark
shadows, an interference pattern. This is how water waves behave when they pass through a small gap.
SCIENTISTS WHO LATER CONTRIBUTED TO THE WAVE THEORY OF LIGHT AND THE
THEORY OF DIFFRACTION OF WAVES

THOMAS YOUNG ISAAC NEWTON JAMES GREGORY

CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS AUGUSTIN-JEAN

JACQUES BABINET
FRESNEL

LOUIS DE BROGLIE LAWRENCE BRAGG WILLIAM HENRY

BRAGG
 PRINCIPLES OF DIFFRACTION

In classical physics diffraction arises because of the way in which waves

propagate; this is described by the Huygens–Fresnel principle and the principle of
superposition of waves. The propagation of a wave can be visualized by considering every
particle of the transmitted medium on a wavefront as a point source for a secondary spherical
wave. The wave displacement at any subsequent point is the sum of these secondary waves.
When waves are added together, their sum is determined by the relative phases as well as the
amplitudes of the individual waves so that the summed amplitude of the waves can have any
value between zero and the sum of the individual amplitudes. Hence, diffraction patterns
usually have a series of maxima and minima.

In the modern quantum mechanical understanding of light propagation through a slit (or slits)
every photon has what is known as a wavefunction. The wavefunction is determined by the
physical surroundings such as slit geometry, screen distance and initial conditions when the
photon is created. In important experiments (A low-intensity double-slit experiment was first
performed by G. I. Taylor in 1909, see double-slit experiment) the existence of the photon's
wavefunction was demonstrated. In the quantum approach the diffraction pattern is created by
the probability distribution, the observation of light and dark bands is the presence or absence
of photons in these areas, where these particles were more or less likely to be detected. The
quantum approach has some striking similarities to the Huygens-Fresnel principle; based on
that principle, as light travels through slits and boundaries, secondary, point light sources are
created near or along these obstacles, and the resulting diffraction pattern is going to be the
intensity profile based on the collective interference of all these lights sources that have
different optical paths. That is similar to considering the limited regions around the slits and
boundaries where photons are more likely to originate from, in the quantum formalism, and
calculating the probability distribution. This distribution is directly proportional to the
intensity, in the classical formalism.

There are various analytical models which allow the diffracted field to be calculated, including
the Kirchhoff-Fresnel diffraction equation which is derived from the wave equation, the
Fraunhofer diffraction approximation of the Kirchhoff equation which applies to the far field
and the Fresnel diffraction approximation which applies to the near field. Most configurations
cannot be solved analytically, but can yield numerical solutions through finite element and
boundary element methods.

It is possible to obtain a qualitative understanding of many diffraction phenomena by

considering how the relative phases of the individual secondary wave sources vary, and in
particular, the conditions in which the phase difference equals half a cycle in which case waves
will cancel one another out.
 DIFFRACTION GRATING
A diffraction grating is essentially a multi-slit surface. It provides angular dispersion, i.e.,
the ability to separate wavelengths based on the angle that they emerge from the grating.
Gratings can be transmissive, like the multi-slit aperture, but they can also be reflective
where the grooved surface is overcoated with a reflecting material such as aluminum. A
typical diffraction grating consists of a large number of parallel grooves (representing the
slits) with a groove spacing on the order of the wavelength of light. This is more
commonly reported as the groove density (G), which is the reciprocal of dG, e.g., typical
gratings have G values between 30 and 5000 grooves per mm. The groove spacing
determines the angles at which a single wavelength will constructively interfere to form
diffracted orders (see below), which are equivalent to the intensity peaks shown in Figure
1. In addition to the spacing of the grooves, the groove profile (see Figure 2) plays a key
role in the performance of a grating. When monochromatic light strikes a grating, a
fraction of it is diffracted into each order (termed its efficiency). Maximizing the
efficiency into a single order, typically the first order, is often desired to ensure increased
light collection. To optimize this efficiency for a single wavelength, a procedure known as
blazing is performed. This involves modifying the groove profile, including facet angles,
shapes and/or depths. The blaze wavelength is the wavelength for which the grating is
most efficient.

Grating Equation
The basic grating equation determines the discrete directions into which monochromatic
light of wavelength λ is diffracted.
Light of wavelength λ is incident at an angle α and diffracted by the grating (with a groove
spacing dG) along a set of angles βm. These angles are measured from the grating normal,
which is shown as the dashed line perpendicular to the grating surface at its center. If βm is
on the opposite side of the grating normal from α, its sign is opposite. In the grating
equation, m is the order of diffraction, which is an integer. For the zeroth order (m = 0), α.
And β0 are equal and opposite, resulting in the light simply being reflected, i.e., no
diffraction. The sign convention for m requires that it is positive if the diffracted ray lies to
the left (counter-clockwise side) of the zeroth order and negative if it lies to the right (the
clockwise side). When a beam of monochromatic light is incident on a grating, the light is
simply diffracted from the grating in directions corresponding to m = -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.
When a beam of polychromatic light is incident on a grating, then the light is dispersed so
that each wavelength satisfies the grating equation as shown in Figure 3. Usually only the
first order, positive or negative, is desired and so higher order wavelengths may need to be
blocked. In many monochromators and spectrographs, a constant-deviation mount is used
where the wavelength is changed by rotating the grating around an axis while the angle
between the incident and diffracted light (or deviation angle) remains unchanged.
 Types of Gratings
Gratings are produced by two methods, ruling and holography. A high-precision ruling
engine creates a master grating by burnishing grooves with a diamond tool against a thin
coating of evaporated metal applied to a surface. Replication of the master grating enables
the production of ruled gratings, which comprise the majority of diffraction gratings used
in dispersive spectrometers. These gratings can be blazed for specific wavelengths,
generally have high efficiency, and are often used in systems requiring high resolution.
Echelle gratings are a type of ruled grating that are coarse, i.e., low groove density, have
high-blaze angles, and use high diffraction orders. The virtue of an echelle grating lies in
its ability to provide high dispersion and resolution in a compact system design.
Overlapping of diffraction orders is an important limitation of echelle gratings requiring
some type of order separation typically provided by a prism or another grating.
Holographic gratings are created using a sinusoidal interference pattern which is etched
into glass. These gratings have lower scatter than ruled gratings, are designed to minimize
aberrations, and can have high efficiency for a single plane of polarization. Gratings can
be reflective or transmissive, and the surface of a grating can either be planar or concave.
Planar gratings generally give higher resolution over a wide wavelength range while
concave gratings can function as both a dispersing and focusing element in a spectrometer.
 Propagation of a laser beam

The way in which the beam profile of a laser beam changes as it propagates is determined
by diffraction. When the entire emitted beam has a planar, spatially coherent wave front, it
approximates Gaussian beam profile and has the lowest divergence for a given diameter.
The smaller the output beam, the quicker it diverges. It is possible to reduce the
divergence of a laser beam by first expanding it with one convex lens, and then
collimating it with a second convex lens whose focal point is coincident with that of the
first lens. The resulting beam has a larger diameter, and hence a lower divergence.
Divergence of a laser beam may be reduced below the diffraction of a Gaussian beam or
even reversed to convergence if the refractive index of the propagation media increases
with the light intensity. This may result in a self-focusing effect.
When the wave front of the emitted beam has perturbations, only the transverse coherence
length (where the wave front perturbation is less than 1/4 of the wavelength) should be
considered as a Gaussian beam diameter when determining the divergence of the laser
beam. If the transverse coherence length in the vertical direction is higher than in
horizontal, the laser beam divergence will be lower in the vertical direction than in the
horizontal.
 Patterns of Diffraction
The upper half of this image shows a diffraction pattern of
He-Ne laser beam on an elliptic aperture. The lower half is
its 2D Fourier transform approximately reconstructing the
shape of the aperture.
Several qualitative observations can be made of diffraction
in general:
•The angular spacing of the features in the diffraction
pattern is inversely proportional to the dimensions of the
object causing the diffraction. In other words: The smaller
the diffracting object, the 'wider' the resulting diffraction
pattern, and vice versa. (More precisely, this is true of the
sines of the angles.)
•The diffraction angles are invariant under scaling; that is,
they depend only on the ratio of the wavelength to the size of the diffracting object.
•When the diffracting object has a periodic structure, for example in a diffraction grating,
the features generally become sharper. The third figure, for example, shows a comparison
of a double-slit pattern with a pattern formed by five slits, both sets of slits having the
same spacing, between the center of one slit and the next.
 Particle diffraction
According to quantum theory every particle exhibits wave properties. In particular,
massive particles can interfere with themselves 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

where h is Planck's constant and p is the momentum of the particle (mass × velocity for
slow-moving particles).
For most macroscopic objects, this wavelength is so short that it is not meaningful to
assign a wavelength to them. A sodium atom traveling at about 30,000 m/s would have a
De Broglie wavelength of about 50 pico meters.
Because the wavelength for even the smallest of macroscopic objects is extremely small,
diffraction of matter waves is only visible for small particles, like electrons, neutrons,
atoms and small molecules. The short wavelength of these matter waves makes them
ideally suited to study the atomic crystal structure of solids and large molecules like
proteins.
 Bragg diffraction
Diffraction from a three-dimensional periodic structure such as atoms in a crystal is called
Bragg diffraction. It is similar to what occurs when waves are scattered from a diffraction
grating. Bragg diffraction is a consequence of interference between waves reflecting from
different crystal planes.

The condition of constructive interference is given by Bragg's law:

where
λ is the wavelength,
d is the distance between crystal planes,
θ is the angle of the diffracted wave.
And n is an integer known as the order of the diffracted beam.

Bragg diffraction may be carried out using either electromagnetic radiation of very short
wavelength like X-rays or matter waves like neutrons (and electrons) whose wavelength is
on the order of (or much smaller than) the atomic spacing. The pattern produced gives
information of the separations of crystallographic planes d, allowing one to deduce the
crystal structure. Diffraction contrast, in electron microscopes and x-topography devices in
particular, is also a powerful tool for examining individual defects and local strain fields in
crystals.

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 whose radius (as measured to the first null) is

where λ is the wavelength of the light and N is the f-number (focal length f divided by
aperture diameter D) of the imaging optics; this is strictly accurate for N≫1
(paraxial case). In object space, the corresponding angular resolution is

where D is the diameter of the entrance pupil of the imaging lens (e.g., of a telescope's
main mirror).
Two point sources will each produce an Airy pattern – see the photo of a binary star. As
the point sources move closer together, the patterns will start to overlap, and ultimately
they will merge to form a single pattern, in which case the two point sources cannot be
resolved in the image. The Rayleigh criterion specifies that two point sources are
considered "resolved" if the separation of the two images is at least the radius of the Airy
disk, i.e. if the first minimum of one coincides with the maximum of the other.
Thus, the larger the aperture of the lens compared to the wavelength, the finer the
resolution of an imaging system. This is one reason astronomical telescopes require large
objectives, and why microscope objectives require a large numerical aperture (large
aperture diameter compared to working distance) in order to obtain the highest possible
resolution.

Speckle patterns
The speckle pattern which is seen when using a laser pointer is another diffraction
phenomenon. It is a result of the superposition of many waves with different phases,
which are produced when a laser beam illuminates a rough surface. They add together to
give a resultant wave whose amplitude, and therefore intensity, varies randomly.
 Babinet's principle
Babinet's principle is a useful theorem stating that the diffraction pattern from an opaque
body is identical to that from a hole of the same size and shape, but with differing
intensities. This means that the interference conditions of a single obstruction would be the
same as that of a single slit.

Circular aperture
The far-field diffraction of a plane wave incident on a circular aperture is often referred to
as the Airy Disk. The variation in intensity with angle is given by:

where a is the radius of the circular aperture, k is equal to 2π/λ and J1 is a Bessel function.
The smaller the aperture, the larger the spot size at a given distance, and the greater the
divergence of the diffracted beams.

General aperture
The wave that emerges from a point source has amplitude at location r that is given by the
solution of the frequency domain wave equation for a point source (the Helmholtz
equation)
where is the 3-dimensional delta function. The delta function has only radial dependence, so
the Laplace operator (scalar Laplacian) in the spherical coordinate system simplifies to (see del in
cylindrical and spherical coordinates)

By direct substitution, the solution to this equation can be readily shown to be the
scalar Green's function, which in the spherical coordinate system (and using the physics
time convention is:

This solution assumes that the delta function source is located at the origin. If the source is
located at an arbitrary source point, denoted by the vector and the field point is located at
the point , then we may represent the scalar Green's function (for arbitrary source location)
as:

Therefore, if an electric field, Einc(x,y) is incident on the aperture, the field produced by
this aperture distribution is given by the surface integral:

where the source point in the aperture is given by the vector

In the far field, wherein the parallel

rays approximation can be employed, the Green's function,

simplifies to
as can be seen in the figure to the right
The expression for the far-zone (Fraunhofer region) field becomes

Now, since

and

the expression for the Fraunhofer region field from a planar aperture now becomes,

Letting,

and

the Fraunhofer region field of the

planar aperture assumes the form of a Fourier transform

In the far-field / Fraunhofer region, this becomes the spatial Fourier transform of the
aperture distribution. Huygens' principle when applied to an aperture simply says that
the far-field diffraction pattern is the spatial Fourier transform of the aperture shape, and
this is a direct by-product of using the parallel-rays approximation, which is identical to
doing a plane wave decomposition of the aperture plane fields.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following websites have helped me complete the project:

wikipedia.org
ieeexplore.ieee.org
www.thestargarden.co.uk
courses.lumenlearning.com
byjus.com