DIFFRACTION LAB REPORT (DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT AND ELECTRON DIFFRACTION)

INTRODUCTION
DIFFRACTION: Diffraction is the bending or spreading of waves that encounter an object (a barrier or an opening) in their path. Any redistribution in space of the intensity of waves that results from the presence of an object causing variations of either the amplitude or phase of the waves is called diffraction. Diffraction is found in all types of wave phenomenon. Diffraction pattern is the pattern produced on a screen or plate by waves which have undergone diffraction. Any instrument used to study the structure of matter by means of the diffraction of x-rays, electrons, neutrons or other waves is called diffractometer of diffraction instrument. DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT: The term interference refers to any situation in which two or more waves overlap in space. Interference effects when many light waves combine or when light strikes on barrier that has an aperture or an edge are grouped under the heading diffraction of light. The appearance of diffraction patterns requires that light must travel as waves. Diffraction patterns can be analyzed using the principle of superposition and Huygens Principle. The principle of superposition states that when two or more waves overlap, the resultant displacement at any point and at any instant may be found by adding the instantaneous displacement that would be produced at that point by the individual waves if each were present alone. Huygens Principle states that every point of a wavefront can be considered the source of secondary wavelets that spread out in all directions with a speed equal to the speed of propagation of the wave. The position of the wave front at any later time is the envelope of the secondary waves at that time. To find the resultant displacement at any point, all the individual displacements produced by these secondary waves are combined using the superposition principle and taking into account their amplitudes and relative phases. There are two types of diffraction depending upon the distances between the light source, obstacle and screen. When both the point source and screen are relatively close to the obstacle forming the diffraction pattern, the situation is described as near-field diffraction or Fresnel diffraction. If the source, obstacle and screen are far enough away that all lines from the source to the obstacle can be considered parallel and all lines from the obstacle to a point in the pattern can be considered parallel, the phenomenon is called far-field diffraction or Fraunhofer diffraction. An optical device consisting of an assembly of narrow slits or grooves which produce a large number of beams that can interfere to produce spectra is called diffraction grating or simply grating. Diffraction gratings are widely used to measure the spectrum of light emitted by a source. ELECTRON DIFFRACTION: The phenomenon associated with the interference processes which occur when electrons are scattered by atoms in crystals to form diffraction patterns is called electron diffraction. The appearance of diffraction pattern for electrons requires that electrons should have a wave nature.

According to De-Broglies relation, the wavelength of an electron is inversely proportional to th e magnitude of its momentum and is given by

h p

(1)

where p is the momentum, is the wavelength and h is the Planks constant. At typical laboratory energies, the electron De-Broglies wavelength is of the order of the interatomic spacing in common crystals. Thus a crystalline solid can serve as a three dimensional dif fraction grating for electrons. Electron diffraction pattern is used for measuring their wavelength and verifying equation (1). Alternatively, knowing the wavelength of electrons, the diffraction patterns can be used for analyzing crystal structures and measuring the interatomic distances in the crystals. The regular arrays in crystals act as plane of reflections and for a set of crystal planes spaced a distance d apart, constructive interference occurs when the angles of incidence and scattering (measured from crystal planes) are equal and when (m = 1, 2, 3,.) 2d sin = m This is called Braggs condition.

For a single uniform crystal, a beam of fixed wavelength electrons must strike at a particular diffraction angle to satisfy the Braggs condition. This can be done by holding the detector fixed and rotating the crystal to observe Bragg reflection. Alternatively, beam energy can be varied to obtain the right wavelength for unknown orientation of the crystal. Experimentally both these methods are difficult and the problem is solved by using powder or polycrystalline sample. The diffraction process is then referred to as Debye-Scherrer diffraction. A polycrystalline material consists of a large number of ordered regions (single crystal regions) oriented randomly with respect to each other. A beam incident on a bulk sample will find many domains oriented at the correct Bragg angle for the beam energy.

EXPERIMENTS
EXPERIMENT 1 Determine the slit width of a grating by diffraction of red and green light Apparatus: Light source, filters, diffraction grating, converging lens, screen, optical bench Procedure: A light source is mounted on the optical bench and a convex lens is placed in front of it to converge the light. Grating is placed in front of lens and a screen is fixed at the end to observe the diffraction pattern. The position of lens and grating is so adjusted that a clear pattern is obtained. Red light filter is placed in front of the light source and in diffraction pattern distance of the first maxima h from the central bright spot is measured. Distance between grating and slit D is also measured. Same process is repeated for green light. Slit width ds is found using the formula dssin = n for n= 1 where

= tan1 h D

Observations and calculations Wavelength for red light = R = 6500 A Wavelength for green light = G = 5500 A For red: Distance of screen from grating = D = 6cm Position of first maxima with respect central bright spot = h = tan ds =
1 R

= 2cm

( h R / D ) = 18.4

/ sin = 19642 A

For green: Distance of screen from grating = D = 6cm Position of first maxima with respect central bright spot = h = tan ds =
1 G

= 1.8cm

( h G / D ) = 16.7

/ sin = 19139 A

EXPERIMENT 2 Determine the De-Broglies wavelength of electrons (at different energies) Apparatus: Electron diffraction tube (consisting of an electron gun, graphite target, luminescent screen), high voltage power supply, connection cables Procedure: The apparatus is set as shown in diagram.

An accelerating voltage less than 5kV is applied and diffraction pattern is observed. The lowest voltage, for which pattern can be observed, is determined. Radii of the two diffraction rings from graphite target are measured for different voltages. From Bragg equation, wavelength is obtained by

dR (2) L where d is the lattice plane spacing in graphite and L is the distance between sample and screen De-Broglies equation is h = p For electrons accelerated through high voltage V, the corresponding energy is given by p2 = eV 2m p = 2meV Putting in De-Broglies relation h = (3) 2meV This can be rewritten as 151.3 (4) (Angstroms) = V(volts) Wavelength of electrons obtained from De-Broglies relation and equation (4) are compared. Observations and calculations =
Lattice plane spacing in graphite = d1 and d2 = 2.13 A and 1.23A Distance between sample and screen = L = 13.5 cm Radius of the diffraction circle = R Wavelength of electrons = = d R / L Outer Voltage radius Inner V R1 R1 R1 1 1 1 radius R2 R2 (kV) (cm) (cm) (A) (A) R2 (cm) (cm) 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 2.50 2.25 1.95 1.75 2.00 2.60 2.40 2.35 2.15 2.05 1.85 1.85 1.65 2.10 1.90 0.200 0.205 0.177 0.159 0.182 0.218 0.182 0.224 0.186 0.196 0.159 0.177 0.141 0.202 0.162 1.25 1.35 1.10 1.00 0.90 1.35 1.15 1.45 1.25 1.20 1.00 1.10 0.90 1.00 0.80

2 (A) 0.197 0.213 0.173 0.157 0.142

2 2 (A) 0.0229 0.165 0.213 0.182 0.205 0.141 0.188 0.126 0.166 0.118

Th (A) 0.220 0.207 0.194 0.183 0.174

(Diffraction Lab Report by Arooj Mukarram)