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Diffraction Grating in Spectroscopy

The document discusses spectroscopy techniques used to analyze light from stars and other astronomical sources. It describes how prisms and diffraction gratings are used to disperse light into spectra and explains concepts like dispersion, resolving power, and blazing. It also discusses methods for recording spectra onto photographic plates and extracting intensity versus wavelength data.

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Ester Decie Ctompul
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18 views1 page

Diffraction Grating in Spectroscopy

The document discusses spectroscopy techniques used to analyze light from stars and other astronomical sources. It describes how prisms and diffraction gratings are used to disperse light into spectra and explains concepts like dispersion, resolving power, and blazing. It also discusses methods for recording spectra onto photographic plates and extracting intensity versus wavelength data.

Uploaded by

Ester Decie Ctompul
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Spectroscopy

In spectroscopy we need means of bringing the image in diffrent wavelengths to diffrent physical
locations in the focal plane. We already seen that this can be done with prism. Since prism does
not spread the light out very much , we say that the prism is a low dispersion instrument.

Dispersion is a measure of the degree to which a spectrum is spread out. Low dispersion spectra
are sometimes adequatefor determining the spectral type of the star. Sometimes a thin prism is
placed over the objective of a telescope , and a photograph is taken of a whole field. Instead of
seeing the individual stars, the spectrum of each star appears in its place.

When better spectral resolution is needed, we generaly use a diffraction grating. For any
wavelength λ, the grating produces a maximum at an angle θ , given by:

S sin θ = mλ

Where d is the separation between slits or lines, and m is an integer, called the order of a
maximum. The higher the order is , the more spread out is the spectrum. Suppose our grating just
let us separate (resolve) two spectral lines that are Δλ apart in wavelength. The resolving power
of the grating is then defined as :

R = λ/Δλ

If the grtaing has total of N lines in it, then in order m the resolving power is given by :

R = Nm

Some gratings have 10000 lines per centimeter over a length of several centimeter. This means
that resolving powers of 10(5) can be achieved . in general, light will go into several orders . it is
possible to cut the lines of a grating so that most of the light goes into one particular order. This
process is called blazing.

Once the spectrum is spread out, it must still be recorded. Again, the photogrphic plate is very
useful. Once a plate is developed it can be studied directly. However, if we want a detailed graph
of intensity vs. Wavelength in spectral line, a more sophisticated tehnique is needed. A device
called a densitometer is used to examine the spectra on the plate.

A fine beam of light is scanned across the plate, and a photomultiplier is used to measure the
fraction of the beam that passes through the plate. Less light gets through where the plate is
blacker. This allows us to measure how exposed each part of the plate is.

We have only covered some of the most basic tehniques for measuring spectra. Other types of
devices split the light from a star into two beams and then allow the two beams to interfere. The
actual spectrum can be recovered by a mathematical operation called a Fourier transform. These
devices provide astronomers with a great deal of flexibility and sensitivity.

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