KALVI INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL – MADURAI

(Affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi)

(Affiliation Number: 1930605)

(2023-2024)

PHYSICS PROJECT REPORT ON

PHENOMENON OF DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT

SUBMITTED BY

J.HAATHIM JAHEER

CLASS-XII

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

 CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. DIFFRACTION

3. DIFFRACTION PATTERNS

4. SINGLE SLIT DIFFRACTION

5. SINGLE SLIT INTERFERANCE

6. DIFFRACTION GRATING

7. BIBIOLIOGRAPHY
 CERTIFICATE

This project entitled “Phenomenon of diffraction of light”, is the investigatory

project work in PHYSICS (042), successfully completed by Master. HAATHIM

JAHEER.J class - XII, KALVI INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL, MADURAI

with Register Number _____ under the guidance of _______ (PHYSICS

TEACHER) for the partial fulfillment of requirements for the course completion

in pursuance of CBSE HIGHER SECONDARY EXAM during the academic year

2023-24.

INTERNAL EXAMINER PRINCIPAL SIGN EXTERNAL EXAMINER

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to praise the almighty for rendering a good help and strength in successfully

completing this investigatory project.

I also wish to thank my parents for supporting me in all means for the completion of this
project.

I wish to dedicate my sincere thanks to my school and my principal who has supported me with

all the facilities for the successful completion of this project.

I dedicate my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to my physics teacher for her complete guidance

and support in completing my project.

I would also like to extend my gratitude towards all teaching and non-teaching staff of KALVI

INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL, MADURAI and towards my friends who have

supported me a lot in the completion of this project.

 INTRODUCTION

The phenomenon of diffraction was first documented in 1665 by the

Italian Francesco Maria Grimaldi. The use of lasers has only becomecommon
in the last few decades. The laser's ability to produce a narrowbeam of coherent
monochromatic radiation in the visible light range makes it ideal for use in
diffraction experiments: the diffracted light forms a clear pattern that is easily
measured. As light, or any wave, passes a barrier, the waveform is distorted at
the boundary edge. If the wave passes through a gap, more obvious distortion
can be seen. As the gap width approaches the wavelength of the wave, the
distortion becomes even more obvious. This process is known as diffraction. If
the diffracted light is projected onto a screen some distance away, then
interference between the light waves create a distinctive pattern (the diffraction
pattern ) on the screen. The nature of the diffractionpattern depends on the
nature of the gap (or mask) which diffracts the original light wave. Diffraction
patterns can be calculated by from a function representing the mask. The
symmetry of the pattern can reveal useful information on the symmetry of the
mask. For a periodic object, the pattern is equivalent to the reciprocal lattice of
the object. In conventional image formation, a lens focuses the diffracted waves
into an image. Since the individual sections (spots) of the diffraction pattern
each contain information, by forming an image from only particular parts of the
diffraction pattern, the resulting image can be used to enhance particular features. This is
used in bright and dark field imaging.
 DIFFRACTION

WHAT IS DIFFRACTION ?

When parallel waves of light are obstructed by a very small object (i.e. sharp edge,
slit, wire, etc.), the waves spread around the edges of theobstruction and interfere,
resulting in a pattern of dark and light fringes.

WHAT DOES DEFFRATION LOOK LIKE ?

When light diffracts off of the edge of an object, it creates a pattern of light referred
to as a diffraction pattern. If a monochromatic light source, such as a laser, is used to
observe diffraction, below are some examples of diffraction patterns that are created by
certain objects.
DIFFRACTION PATTERNS
 SINGLE SLIT DIFFRACTION

In our consideration of the Young’s double-slit experiments, we have assumed the width
of the slits to be so small that each slit is a point source. In this section we shall take the width
of slit to be finite and see how Fraunhofer diffraction arises. Let a source of monochromatic
light be incident on a slit of finite width a, as shown in Figure 1

FIGURE-1:- Diffraction of light by a slit of width a

In diffraction ofFraunhofer type, all rays passing through the slit are approximately
parallel. In addition, each portion of the slit will act as a source of light waves according to
Huygens’s principle. For simplicity we divide the slit into two halves. At the first minimum,
each ray from the upper half will be exactly 180 out of phase with a corresponding ray form the
lower half. For example, suppose there are 100 point sources, with the first 50 in the lower half,
and 51 to 100 in the upper half. Source 1 and source 51 are separated by a distance and are out
of phase with a path difference ° a / 2 δ = λ / 2 . Similar observation applies to source 2 and
source 52, as well as any pair that are a distance a / 2 apart. Thus, the condition for the first
minimum is
a
2
sin θ = 2λ ------> eq. 1
 λ
sin θ =a ------> eq. 2
Applying the same reasoning to the wavefronts from four equally spaced points a
distance a / 4 apart, the path difference would be δ = a sinθ / 4 , and thecondition for
destructive interference is
2λ
sin θ= ------> eq.3
a
The argument can be generalized to show that destructive interference will occur

whena sin θ = mλ, m= ±1,±2,±3,…( destructive interference) -----> eq.4

Figure 2 illustrates the intensity distribution for a single-slit diffraction. Note that θ = 0 is a
maximum.

FIGURE-2:-intensity distribution for a single-slit diffraction

By comparing Eq. (4 ) with Eq(2)., we see that the condition for minima of a single-slit
diffraction becomes the condition for maxima of a double-slit interference when the width of a
single slit a is replaced by the separation betweenthe two slits d. The reason is that in the
double-slit case, the slits are taken to be so small that each one is considered as a single light
source, and the interference of waves originating within the same slit can be neglected. On the
other hand, the minimum condition for the single-slit diffraction is obtained precisely by taking
into consideration the interference of waves that originate within the same slit.
 SINGLE SLIT INTERFERENCE

How do we determine the intensity distribution for the pattern produced by a single-slit
diffraction? To calculate this, we must find the total electric field by adding the field
contributions from each point. Let’s divide the single slit into N small zones each of width ∆y
a = / N , as shown in Figure 3. The convex lens is used to bring parallel light rays to a focal
point P on the screen. We shall assume that ∆y << λ so that all the light from a given zone is
in phase. Two adjacent zones have a relative path length δ = ∆ysin θ . The relative phase
shift ∆ β is given by the ratio
∆β δ ∆ y sin θ
2π
= λ
= λ
,=>∆ β 2∆π ∆ y sin θ ------> eq.5

FIGURE 3 :-Single-slit Fraunhofer diffraction

Suppose the wavefront from the first point (counting from the top) arrives atthe point P
on the screen with an electric field given by
E1 = E 10 sin ωt------> eq.6
The electric field from point 2 adjacent to point 1 will have a phase shift ∆β , and the field is
E2 = E 10 sin (ωt+ ∆β)------> eq.7
 FIGURE-4:- Intensity of the single-slit Fraunhofer diffraction pattern

FIGURE 5:- Intensity of single-slit diffraction as a function of θ for a = λ and a = 2λ

 DIFFRACTION GRATING

A diffraction grating consists of a large number N of slits each of width a and

separated from the next by a distance d , as shown in Figure

FIGURE 6:- Diffraction grating

If we assume that the incident light is planar and diffraction spreads the light from
each slit over a wide angle so that the light from all the slits will interfere with each other.
The relative path difference between each pair of adjacent slits is δ = d sinθ , similar to the
calculation we made for the double-slit case. If this path difference is equal to an integral
multiple of wavelengths then all the slits will constructively interfere with each other and a
bright spot will appear on the screen at an angle θ . Thus, the condition for the principal
maxima is given by
d sin θ = mλ, m=0, ±1, ±2, ±3,… -----> eq.8
If the wavelength of the light and the location of the m-order maximum are known,
the distance d between slits may be readily deduced. The location of the maxima does not
depend on the number of slits, N. However, the maxima become sharper and more intense as
N is increased. The width of the maxima can be shown to be inversely proportional to N. In
Figure7, we show the intensity distribution as a function of β / 2 for diffraction grating with
N =10 and N=30 . Notice that the principal maxima become sharper and narrower as N
increases.
 FIGURE 7:- Intensity distribution for a diffraction grating for (a) N=10 and
(b) N=30

The observation can be explained as follows: suppose an angle θ ( recall that β

= 2 s π a inθ/λ ) which initially gives a principal maximum is increased slightly, if there were
only two slits, then the two waves will still be nearly in phase and produce maxima which are
broad. However, in grating with a large number of slits, even though θ may only be slightly
deviated from the value that produces a maximum, it could be exactly out of phase with light
wave from another slitfar away. Since grating produces peaks that are much sharper than the
two-slit system, it gives a more precise measurement of the wavelength.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. www.google.com

2. NCERT TEXT BOOKS {CLASS XII}

3. STUDYMATERIAL

4. REFERENCE BOOKS {PHYSICS}

5. TEACHERS

6. CLASSMATES