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This type of experiment was first performed by Thomas Young in 1801, as a demonstration of the wave behavior of visible light. [1] In 1927, Davisson and Germer and, independently, George Paget Thomson and his research student Alexander Reid [ 2 ] demonstrated that electrons show the same behavior, which was later extended to atoms and molecules.
Because diffraction is the result of addition of all waves (of given wavelength) along all unobstructed paths, the usual procedure is to consider the contribution of an infinitesimally small neighborhood around a certain path (this contribution is usually called a wavelet) and then integrate over all paths (= add all wavelets) from the source to the detector (or given point on a screen).
Diffraction is the same physical effect as interference, but interference is typically applied to superposition of a few waves and the term diffraction is used when many waves are superposed. [1]: 433 Italian scientist Francesco Maria Grimaldi coined the word diffraction and was the first to record accurate observations of the phenomenon in 1660.
The wavelength of light is then selected by the slit on the upper right corner. An optical spectrometer (spectrophotometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. [1]
A blazed diffraction grating reflecting only the green portion of the spectrum from a room's fluorescent lighting. For a diffraction grating, the relationship between the grating spacing (i.e., the distance between adjacent grating grooves or slits), the angle of the wave (light) incidence to the grating, and the diffracted wave from the grating is known as the grating equation.
Lloyd's mirror is an optics experiment that was first described in 1834 by Humphrey Lloyd in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. [1] Its original goal was to provide further evidence for the wave nature of light, beyond those provided by Thomas Young and Augustin-Jean Fresnel.
Due to the quantum mechanical wave nature of particles, diffraction effects have also been observed with atoms—effects which are similar to those in the case of light. . Chapman et al. carried out an experiment in which a collimated beam of sodium atoms was passed through two diffraction gratings (the second used as a mask) to observe the Talbot effect and measure the Talbot length
Light from a passing through a slit (not shown) is reflected by mirror m (rotating clockwise around c) towards the concave spherical mirrors M and M'. Lens L forms images of the slit on the surfaces of the two concave mirrors. The light path from m to M is entirely through air, while the light path from m to M' is mostly through a water-filled ...