Exam 35: Diffraction

A camera used for aerial surveillance has a lens with a 30-cm maximum aperture and a 42-cm focal length. Assume light of 550-nm wavelength is used and that the resolution of the camera is limited solely by diffraction. What is the angular resolution of the camera at maximum aperture?

Certain planes of a crystal of halite have a spacing of 0.399 nm. The crystal is irradiated by a beam of x-rays. First order constructive interference occurs when the beam makes an angle of 20° with the planes. What is the wavelength of the x-rays?

If an x-ray beam of wavelength 1.4 × 10^-10 m makes an angle of 20° with a set of planes in a crystal causing first order constructive interference, at what angle will the second order line appear?

A 10-inch telescope (25.4 cm in diameter) is used to determine if what appears to be one star is actually two stars. Stars are so far away that they are essentially point sources. How close (in angle) can the two stars be and still be resolved by this telescope if it is focusing light of wavelength of 550 nm? (Consider only the limitation due to diffraction.)

A laser beam passes through a thin slit. When the pattern is viewed on a screen 1.25 m past the slit, you observe that the fifth-order dark fringes occur at ±2.41 cm from the central bright fringe. The entire experiment is now performed within a liquid, and you observe that each of the fifth-order dark fringes is 0.790 cm closer to the central fringe than it was in air. What is the index of refraction of this liquid?

A lens is designed to work in the visible, near-infrared, and near-ultraviolet. The best resolution of this lens from a diffraction standpoint is

A diffraction grating has 300 lines per mm. If light of wavelength 630 nm is sent through this grating, what is the highest order maximum that will appear?

What is the angular separation of the two second-order spectral lines having wavelengths 417 nm and 388 nm using a diffraction grating having 456 lines/mm?

A He-Ne laser, which produces light of wavelength 632.8 nm, is used to calibrate a diffraction grating. If the first-order maximum occurs at 20.5° from the central spot, what is the distance between the slits of the grating?

What is the limiting angle of resolution for the eye if the pupil diameter of the eye is 4.0 mm, the wavelength of the light is 600 nm, and index of refraction of the liquid in the eye is 1.34?

In a single-slit diffraction experiment, the width of the slit through which light passes is reduced. What happens to the width of the central bright fringe?

A single slit forms a diffraction pattern, with the first minimum at an angle of 40.0° from central maximum, when monochromatic light of 630-nm wavelength is used. The same slit, illuminated by a new monochromatic light source, produces a diffraction pattern with the second minimum at a 60.0° angle from the central maximum. What is the wavelength of this new light?

A thin beam of light of wavelength 625 nm goes through a thin slit and falls on a screen 3.00 m past the slit. You observe that the first completely dark fringes occur on the screen at distances of ±8.24 mm from the central bright fringe, and that the central bright fringe has an intensity of 2.00 W/m² at its center. (a) How wide is the slit? (b) What is the intensity of light at a point on the screen that is one-quarter of the way from the central bright fringe to the first dark fringe?

In the figure, a slit 0.30 mm wide is illuminated by light of wavelength 426 nm. A diffraction pattern is seen on a screen 2.8 m from the slit. What is the linear distance on the screen between the first diffraction minima on either side of the central diffraction maximum?

A researcher is investigating a cubic crystal with x-rays. He is looking at Bragg reflection from the planes parallel to the cube faces. He finds that when using x-rays of 0.165 nm a strong first maximum occurs when the beam makes an angle of 23.5° with the planes. What is the spacing of adjacent atoms in the crystal?

In a diffraction grating experiment, light of 600 nm wavelength produces a first-order maximum 0.350 mm from the central maximum on a distant screen. A second monochromatic source produces a third-order maximum 0.870 mm from the central maximum when it passes through the same diffraction grating. What is the wavelength of the light from the second source?

A diffraction grating is to be used to find the wavelength of the light in the emission spectrum of a gas. The grating spacing is not known, but a light having a known wavelength of 632.8 nm is deflected by 43.2° away from the central maximum in the second order by this grating. Light of the wavelength to be measured is deflected by 48.2° away from the central maximum in the second order. What is the wavelength of this light?

A single-slit diffraction pattern is formed on a distant screen. Assuming the angles involved are small, by what factor will the width of the central bright spot on the screen change if the slit width is doubled?

A single slit that is 2100 nm wide forms a diffraction pattern when illuminated by monochromatic light of 680-nm wavelength. At an angle of 10° from the central maximum, what is the ratio of the intensity to the intensity of the central maximum?

A single slit illuminated with a 500 nm light gives a diffraction pattern on a far screen. The 5th minimum occurs at 7.00° away from the central maximum. At what angle does the 18th minimum occur?