Student's

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Dispersion and resolving power of the prism and

grating spectroscope (Item No.: P2210300)
Curricular Relevance

Experiment:
Subtopic: Dispersion and
Area of Expertise: Education Level: Topic:
Diffraction and resolving power of the
Physics University Light and Optics
Interference prism and grating
spectroscope

Difficulty Preparation Time Execution Time Recommended Group Size

Difficult 1 Hour 3 Hours 2 Students

Additional Requirements: Experiment Variations:

Keywords:

Maxwell relationship, dispersion, polarizability, refractive index, prism, Rowland grating, spectrometer-goniometer

Overview

Short Description
Principle:

The refractive indicies of liquids, crown glass and flint glass are determined as a function of the wavelength by refraction of light
through the prism at minimum deviation. The resolving power of the glass prisms is determined from the dispersion curve.

Fig. 1: Experimental set-up for determining dispersion in liquids.

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Equipment

Position No. Material Order No. Quantity

1 PHYWE Spectrometer-Goniometer with vernier SG1 PRO 35635-03 1
2 Lamp holder pico 9 for spectral lamps 08119-00 1
3 Spectral lamp Hg 100, pico 9 base 08120-14 1
4 Power supply for spectral lamps 13662-97 1
5 Diffraction grating, 4 lines/mm 08532-00 1
6 Diffraction grating, 8 lines/mm 08534-00 1
7 Grating, 80 lines/mm 09827-00 1
8 Diffraction grating, 600 lines/mm 08546-00 1
9 Magnifier with handle, 4x, d=50 mm 87004-03 1
10 Tripod base PHYWE 02002-55 1
11 Slit, adjustable 08049-00 1
12 Barrel base PHYWE 02006-55 1
13 Right angle clamp expert 02054-00 1
14 Support rod, stainless steel, l = 250 mm, d = 10 mm 02031-00 1

Task
1. To adjust the spectrometer-goniometer.
2. To determine the refractive index of various liquids in a hollow prism.
3. To determine the refractive index of various glass prism.
4. To determine the wavelengths of the mercury spectral lines.
5. To demonstrate the relationship between refractive index and wavelength (dispersion curve).
6. To calculate the resolving power of the glass prisms from the slope of the dispersion curves.
7. Determination of the grating constant of a Rowland gratin based on the diffraction angle (up to the third oder) of the high
intensity spectral lines of mercury.
8. Determination of the angular dispersion of a grating.
9. Determination of the resolving power required to separate the different Hg-Lines. Comparison with theory.

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Set-up and procedure

Experiment with the glas prism

Fig. 2: Set-up and path of rays in the spectrometer. (L =

light source, Sp = slit in drawtube, S = collimator, SO =
collimator lens, PT = prism table with adjust-ing screws,
P = prism, FO = telescope lens, F = telescope, O =
eyepiece, K = cross-wires, W = graduated circle with
vernier)

The experiment is set up as shown in Fig. 1.

The spectrometer-goniometer and the grating should be adjusted in accordance with the operating instructions. When the
adjustment is correct, a parallel beam of light will pass through the prism (Fig. 2).
The aperture, or slit, is projected into the plane of the crosswires with the telescope set to infinity and observed with the
eyepiece which is used as a magnifier.
The prism is then set to the minimum deviation and the angular position 1 of the telescope is read off on the vernier for each
spectral line. The prism is then turned so that the light falls on the adjacent surface and is deviated to the opposite side. The
angle 2 is now read off for each spectral line, at minimum deviation.
A ruled grating which is secured in a holder perpendicular to the collimator axis, and takes the place of the prism, is used to
determine the wavelengths of the mercury spectral lines. The angles of first-order diffracted lines are measured to the right and
left of the undeviated image of the slit.

The spectral lamp reaches its maximum lumiosity after approx. 5 minutes’ warm-up time. When setting up the lamp, ensure that
air can circulate unimpeded through the ventilation slots on the lamp housing.

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Experiment with the grating

Fig. 3: Experimental set-up with vernier used auxiliary slit to

determine the resolving power.

The experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 3. To start with, the telescope is adjusted to infinite distance. Then both tubes are
adjusted horizontally with the adjusting screws and finally they are adjusted so that the directions of their axes coincide. The Hg-
lamp is placed directly before the slit and must illuminate it completely. A sharp image of the slit is formed in the plane of the
eyepiece scale and is observed using the eyepiece lens as a magnifying lens. The slit should be selected as narrow as possible.
To start with, the grating constant of the high resolution Rowland grating is determined. For this, the grating is set perpendicular
to the collimator axis and the grating table is fixed. The diffraction angles of the 6 high intensity Hg spectral lines are
determined for the first and second order. Furthermore, recognizable third order lines should also be evaluated. The angle 2 of a
spectral line of the same order of diffraction is measured to the right and to the left of the zero order. Two measurement readings
are taken for every angle (two verniers).
Usually, the eyepiece scale is difficult to see, due to reduced brightness for higher orders diffraction. In these cases, better
visibility may be obtained by lighting the grating askew from the direction of the telescope with a torch light.
The number of illuminated grating slits is reduced to determine the resolving power of the grating. For this purpose, a slide
caliper is placed as an auxiliary slit in front of the collimator lens in such a way, that no light reaches the grating when the
caliper is closed (cf. Fig. 3).The auxiliary slit is then opened so that for example the yellow and green lines of Hg can be observed
as clearly separate lines. The width x of the auxiliary slit is then reduced until the two lines merely appear separated. The
average width of the auxiliary slit is determined over several experimental runs. Gratings with up to 50 lines/mm are used to
determine the resolution required for the yellow-green lines. The Rowland grating is used to separate the pair of yellow Hg lines.
(Cf. Table 4 for grating type and useful order of diffraction)

Fig. 4: Dispersion curves of

various substances.

Theory and evaluation

Dispersion and resolving power of the prism

The refractive index of a medium is linked to the relative permittivity by the Maxwell relationship

(1)

For most substances the permeability is:

.

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Fig. 5: Refraction by the prism when the path of a ray is

symmetrical.

According to Clausius and Mossotti, the following relationship exists between the relative permittivity and the molecular
polarizability of a medium:

(2)

where is the concentration of the polarizable molecules and is the electric field constant.

The polarizability depends on the frequency of the incident light. The following is approximately true, beyond the
natural frequency of an atom or molecule:

(3)

where is the elementary charge and is the mass of an electron.
When (1) and (3) are substituted in (2) we obtain

(4)

Fig. 6: Measurement of the angle of minimum deviation.

Although equation (4) only takes one natural frequency into account, this formula adequately describes the decrease in the
refractive index as the wavelength increases, outside the range of natural frequencies.

The wavelength of the spectral lines are determined with a diffraction grating which is placed in the path of the rays, instead of
the prism. For a wavelength , the grating constant and angle at which the first order diffraction pattern appears, the
following applies:

.

is determined from the average of several measurements:

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If a ray of light passes symmetrically through a prism (Fig. 5), minimum deviation occurs.
If is the angle of incidence, the angle of reflection, and the angle of the prism then

and (5)

From these we obtain

(6)

The angle of minimum deviation is obtained from the difference between the angles and measured at the two different
prism position (Fig. 6):

The dispersion curve (Fig. 4) is determined from the angles measured for the various mercury spectral lines.

The performance of a spectrometer is characterised by its ‘resolving power’. Two wavelengths and are still perceived
as separate spectral lines when the principal maximum of line coincides with the minimum of line .
The resolving power Ris generally defined by the expression:

For a prism, the following applies:

where is the base of the prism (see Fig. 5).

Resolving power is determined in the ‘yellow’ and the ‘blue’ regions of the spectrum (Table 1) from the slope of the dispersion
curve (Fig. 4) with the prism fully illuminated .

Table 1: The dispersions and resolving powers of glass prisms

determined from the dispersion curve (Fig. 4)

Example:

A prism with the resolving power

is still able to separate the two sodium-D lines.

Dispersion and resolving power of a grating

If monochromatic light with the wavelength impinges on a diffraction grating, the intensity diffracted according to the angle
is given by:

with and (7)

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( = width of the slit; = distance between two slits = grating constant; = number of slits)

The first bracket describes the distribution of intensities due to diffraction by a single slit, whereas the combined effect of all the
slits is described by the second bracket. If one bracket is zero, then total intensity I( ) = 0. This means however, that minima
due to a single slit continue to exist when slits act together. On the other hand, peaks due to a single slit can be interspersed
by further secondary minima if the second bracket is zero.

Fig. 7: Diffraction at the grating.

The diffraction direction of maximum for a given grating fulfils the following relation:

or ;

= order of diffraction = (0,1,2,...). (8)

There are (N-1) secondary minima between every two peaks. If light impinges at an angle against the perpendicular to the
grating, the following is valid (cf. Fig. 7):

;

with . (9)

The angle is considered to be positive when the diffracted and incident beams are on the same side of the perpendicular to
the grating. If each angle is on another side of the perpendicular, then is negative. In case of perpendicular incidence ( = 0),
the following applies:

. (10)

By differentiation of (9) one obtains the angle of dispersion d /d of the grating:

(with , if ). (11)

Angular dispersion is independent of the angle of incidence and compared to prisms, it remains nearly constant for small
diffraction angles.

Two spectral lines and only can be separated if they are so far apart from each other that the peak of coincides with
the minimum of (Rayleigh criterion). The quotient of the average wavelength and the difference between the wavelengths of
lines which merely appear separated is called the spectral resolving power.

. (12)

The following is valid for the spectral resolving power of a diffraction grating:

. (13)

( = order of diffraction; = effective (illuminated) number of slits)

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Table 2: Typical measurement values (diffraction of the first

order) to determine the grating constant of the Rowland
grating.

Table 2 shows the results (for ) of a typical measurement for the determination of grating constant according to (10).
The diffraction angle of a spectral line is calculated from the half angular difference of the corresponding diffraction order .
Finally, as two values and are determined for every angle due to the two verniers, the average value is:

.

If one also considers the refraction of lines No.1-No. 6 in the second order ( ), as well as those third order lines (
) which still can be recognised, the grating constant is found to be:

= (1.6567 ± 0.0016 ) μm ; = ± 0,1 %; (603.6 ± 0.6)/mm.

Table 3 shows the angular dispersion values determined according to (11) ( ; d must be converted to radian for
assessment. The values d and d are obtained from the difference between the corresponding values of neighbouring lines).

Table 3: Evaluation of the angular dispersion.

According to (12), a theoretical resolving power = 562 nm/ 32 nm = ~17.6 is required to separate the green Hg-line- ~546
nm from the pair of yellow lines ~ 578 nm. To separate the two yellow Hg-lines = 576.960 nm and = 578.966 nm,
must at least be 289.
Table 4 gives the averages of the auxiliary slit width obtained over several measurements, which are necessary to separate
the lines of different diffraction orders for various gratings. The last three columns give the values for the corresponding
resolving power A.

The average values of required to separate the yellow-green as well as the yellow-yellow lines, which are determined
experimentally to be 17.7 and 287, concur sastisfactorily with the theoretical values.

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