What is the correct definition of wave diffraction?
When a wave is returned from it’s original direction when incident on a shiny surface
The change in direction of a wave when it passes between materials of different density
The spreading out of waves when they pass an obstruction
The constructive interference of two waves in phase
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What is the correct definition of a diffraction pattern?
Light can be represented as a series of light and dark fringes which show the areas of maximum and minimum intensity
The ripples visible on the surface of the water when water waves are diffracted
The change in amplitude of a wave as it passes through a gap in a barrier
The spectrum formed when white light is passed through a prism
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For a plane transmission diffraction grating, the diffraction grating equation for the first order beam is:
d sin(θ) = λ
The figures below show two of the slits in the grating. Which figure shows the correct distance for λ?
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Diffraction gratings have a wide range of uses in science and medicine.
Which of the following answers contain four correct uses of diffraction gratings?
| Use 1 | Use 2 | Use 3 | Use 4 |
A | Analyse Light from stars | Analyse the absorption spectra in stars | Analyse the signals received in a piezoelectric crystal | Analyse the frequency of sound coming from oceanic mammals |
B | Analyse composition of stars | X-Ray crystallography | Analyse the dust particles of a comet | Measure the wavelength of light from a star |
C | Chemical analysis of stars | Measure the rotational frequency of a star | Measure rotation of a planet | Measure the velocity of a comet travelling towards Earth |
D | Measure red shift | Measure the frequency of light from a star | Analyse the emission spectra in stars | Observe the spectra of materials |
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The diagram shows a diffraction grating and a monochromatic source of light with wavelength (λ).
What happens to the angle of diffraction (θ) when the wavelength of light is increased, but all the other equipment remains the same?
The angle of diffraction remains the same
The angle of diffraction is decreased
The angle of diffraction is increased
There is not enough information to know what will happen
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The diagram shows a diffraction grating with a slit distance (d) and a monochromatic source of light incident on the grating.
What happens to the angle of diffraction when the distance between the slits on the grating is reduced?
The angle of diffraction remains the same
The angle of diffraction is decreased
The angle of diffraction is increased
There is not enough information to know what will happen
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A diffraction pattern is formed by passing monochromatic light through a single slit.
If the width of the single slit is reduced, which of the following is true?
| Intensity of central maximum | Width of central maximum |
A | decreases | increases |
B | decreases | decreases |
C | unchanged | decreases |
D | increases | increases |
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What is the correct description of a diffraction grating?
A plate on which there is a single slit of a specified width
A transparent thin film through which only polarised light can pass
A small block of glass used for optical experiments
A plate on which there is a very large number of parallel, identical, close-spaced slits
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The diagram below shows a spectrometer that uses a diffraction grating to split a beam of white light into its constituent wavelengths and enables the angles of these diffracted beams to be measured.
Which of the following statements about the light emerging at A and B is true?
| Statement 1 | Statement 2 |
A | The intensity of light at A will be less than at B | The light at B will appear white |
B | The intensity of the light at A will be greater than at B | There will be a spectrum at B |
C | The intensity of the light at A will be greater than at B | There will be a spectrum at A |
D | There will be red light appearing at A | There will be a violet light appearing at B |
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Which is a description of the pattern produced when monochromatic light passes through a very narrow slit?
A narrow central maximum with wider side fringes
A wide central maximum with narrower fringes at the side
A narrow central maximum with wider fringes at the side, getting wider the further away from the central maximum
A small number of bright fringes that are spaced far apart
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A diffraction grating with 1000 lines per cm has light passed through it. An identical light source is also passed through two slits 0.5 mm apart.
Both will produce intensity maxima and minima on a screen.
Which of the following statements about the separation and sharpness of the maxima is correct?
The diffraction grating maxima are more widely spaced and are less sharp than the two-slit maxima
The diffraction grating maxima are less widely spaced and are sharper than the two-slit maxima
The diffraction grating maxima are more widely spaced and are sharper than the two-slit maxima
The diffraction grating maxima are less widely spaced and are less sharp than the two-slit maxima
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Monochromatic light with a wavelength of 600 nm is observed through a diffraction grating with 500 lines per mm.
The light is passed through a narrow slit where the lines from the slit are parallel to the grating. The light goes through the slit then the grating.
The observer changes position from R (parallel with the grating), then S (opposite the slit) and finally T (parallel to the grating on the opposite side).
What is the number of images they would see in total?
7
6
4
3
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Yellow light with a wavelength of 600 nm is used in a diffraction grating experiment. The grating has a separation of 2.00 μm.
What would be the angular separation between the first order and second order maxima?
56.3º
36.9º
19.4º
17.5º
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Monochromatic light of wavelength 650 nm is incident normally on a plane diffraction grating having 7 × 105 lines m–1. An interference pattern is produced. What is the highest order visible in this interference pattern?
2
3
4
5
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A beam of monochromatic light with a wavelength of 690 nm is directed at a diffraction grating with 300 lines per mm as shown in the diagram
This set up produces a series of maxima on the screen, what is the greatest number that can be observed?
9
8
5
4
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A single slit diffraction pattern is produced on a screen using a blue laser. The intensity of the central maximum is plotted on the axes in the figure below.
The laser is replaced with a ray box and lamp that produces a narrow beam of white light.
Which of the following describes the appearance of the diffraction pattern and the intensity pattern?
| Statement 1 | Statement 2 | Statement 3 | Statement 4 |
A | All maxima in the interference pattern are equally high | Single colours of the spectrum are present at each subsidiary maxima | Central maximum is a spectrum from red to violet | Violet is present on the outer edge of each subsidiary maxima |
B | Each bright fringe in the diffraction pattern occurs at a maximum | White light is present at each subsidiary maxima | Central maximum is a spectrum from red to violet | Red is present on the outer edge of each subsidiary maxima |
C | All maxima in the interference pattern are equally high | White light is present at each subsidiary maxima | Central maximum is white | Violet is present on the outer edge of each subsidiary maxima |
D | Each bright fringe in the diffraction pattern occurs at a maximum | All colours of the spectrum are present at all subsidiary maxima | Central maximum is white | Violet is present on the inner edge of each subsidiary maxima |
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The diagram below shoes a laser emitting orange light directed at a single slit, where the slit width is greater than the wavelength of the light. The intensity graph for the diffracted orange light is shown.
The laser is replaced by a laser emitting green light.
Which option shows how the intensity varies with position for the orange and green light sources on the screen?
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A diffraction grating has 200 lines per mm. It is illuminated with monochromatic light of wavelength 650 nm.
What is the angle of the second order maximum?
0.015 ⁰
15.1 ⁰
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⁰
7.47 ⁰
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The figure below shows a spectrometer that uses a diffraction grating to split a beam of light into its constituent wavelengths and enables the angles of the diffracted beams to be measured.
Light with a particular wavelength is passed through the diffraction grating. The angle of diffraction θ at the centre of the first observed beam at Z in the image above is 63.0⁰ and the grating has 1562 lines per mm.
A dark fringe is observed at position W, with the central maximum at the straight-through position.
How many orders of maxima of this light are present at this wavelength?
2
3
1
0
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This question is about the measurement of the wavelength of laser light.
The light is shone onto a diffraction grating at normal incidence.
The light transmitted by the diffraction grating produces five spots on a screen. These spots are labelled P to T as shown in the diagram below.
A student uses a meter ruler with 1 mm divisions to take readings. She uses these readings to obtain the measurements x, y and z the distances between centres of the spots.
The table shows her measurements and her estimated uncertainties.
Measurement | Distance / mm | Uncertainty / mm |
x | 289 | 2 |
y | 255 | 2 |
z | 544 | 2 |
The distance between the centres of spots P and R and the distance between the centres of R and T are equal.
That is:
x + y = z
What is the percentage uncertainty in the sum of x and y?
0.74 %
1.48 %
74 %
1.47 %
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Monochromatic electromagnetic radiation of wavelength 3.2 x 10-7 m is incident normally on a diffraction grating with 5.0 x 105 lines per meter.
What is the highest order maximum produced?
7
6
5
4
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A discharge lamp emits light of four colours: red ( λ = 665 nm), green ( λ = 550 nm), blue ( λ = 470 nm) and violet ( λ = 400 nm). The diagram shows light from the lamp incident normally on a diffraction grating with 0.8 x 103 slits per millimeter. The light is viewed through a telescope that can be rotated as shown.
As the telescope is rotated from the straight through position, each of the four colours is observed as a bright line at its corresponding first-order diffraction angle.
How many additional order of maxima will be seen with this set up for the colour that is observed furthest away from the central maxima?
3
2
1
0
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A diffraction grating is illuminated normally with light of wavelength 5.5 x 10-7m.
When a screen is 1.2 m from the grating, the distance between the zero and first-order maxima on the screen is 0.40 m.
What is the number of lines per mm of the diffraction grating?
1.7 x 10-6
3.5 x 1010
588
588 x 103
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Light of wavelength 650 nm is incident on a diffraction grating which has 500 lines per mm.
What is the angular separation between the two second-order maxima?
81.0⁰
40.5⁰
0.074⁰
37.9⁰
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A parallel beam of monochromatic light is directed normally at a plane of transmission grating which has N slits per meter.
The second order diffracted beam is at an angle θ to the zero-order transmitted beam.
The grating is then replaced by a plane transmission grating which has 4N slits per meter.
Which one of the following statements is correct?
With the first grating, the first order beam is at an angle of 0.25θ to the zero-order transmitted beam
With the second grating, the second order beam is at an angle of 0.25θ to the zero-order transmitted beam
With the second grating, the first order beam is at an angle of 2θ to the zero-order transmitted beam
With the second grating, the second order beam is at an angle θ to the zero-order transmitted beam
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Light of wavelength λ is incident normally on a diffraction grating for which adjacent lines are a distance 5 λ apart. What is the angle between the third order maximum and the straight-through position?
24⁰
53⁰
37⁰
There is no third order maximum
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A diffraction grating was used to measure the wavelength of a certain line of a light emission spectrum.
The grating had 500 lines per millimeter. The angle of diffraction of the third order line was 25.3⁰.
What is the energy in eV of a photon of this wavelength?
4.40
7.07 x 10-19
2.80 x 10-7
1.74 x 10-8
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Figure 1 shows a laser beam of wavelength 550 nm incidental normally on a diffraction grating.
The LDR of a scanning photometer is moved across the diffracted beam and produces the scan shown in Figure 2.This shows the central bright fringe with one further maximum (the first order image) on each side of it. The distance from the diffraction grating to the LDR is 150 mm.
Figure 1
Figure 2
What is the correct order of magnitude for the number of lines per mm on the diffraction grating?
1 × 105
1 × 102
1 x 10-10
1 x 10-6
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