The absolute efficiency of a grating in a given wavelength region and

order is the ratioof the diffracted light energy to the incident light energy in the
same wavelength region. Increasing the number of rulings on a grating, for
example, increases the light energy throughput. The zeroth-order diffraction
principal maximum, for whichthere is no dispersion, represents a waste of light
energy, reducing grating efficiency.The zeroth order, it will be recalled,
contains the most intense interference maximum because it coincides with the
maximum of the single-slit diffraction envelope. The technique of shaping
individual grooves so that the diffraction envelope maximum shifts into another
order is called blazing the grating.
To understand the effect of blazing, consider Figure 17-4 for a
transmission grating and figure17-5 for a reflection grating. For simplicity, light
is shown transmitted or reflected from a single groove, even though diffraction
involves the cooperative contribution from many grooves. In each figure, (a)
illustrates the situation for an unblazed grating and (b) shows the result of
shaping the grooves to shift the diffraction envelope maximum (β= 0) from the
zeroth-order (m = 0) interference or principal maximum. Recall that the
diffraction envelope maximum occurs where β = 0, that is, where the far-field
path difference for light rays from the center and the edge of any groove is zero.
A zero path difference for these rays implies the condition of geometrical
optics: For transmitted light figure n17-4, the diffraction peak is in the direction
of the incident beam; for reflected light , Figure 17-5 it is in the direction of the
specularly reflected beam. By introducing prismatic grooves in figure 17-4 or
inclined mirror faces in figure 17-5, the corresponding zero path difference is
shifted into the directions of the refracted beam and the new reflected beam
respectively which now corespond to the case β=0.. While the diffraction
envelope is thus shifted by the shaping of the individual grooves, the
interference maxima remain fixed in position. Their positions are determined by
the grating equation,in which angles are measured relative to the plane of the
grating. Neither this plane nor the groove separation have been altered in going
from (a) to (b) in either Figure 17-4 or 17-5. The result is that the diffraction
maximum now favors a principal maximum of a higher order (lml > 0), and the
grating redirects the bulk of the light energy
where it is most useful.
It remains to determine the proper blaze angle of a grating. Consider the
reflection grating of Figure 17-6, where a beam is incident on a groove face at
angle θi and is diffracted at arbitrary angle θ, both measured relative to the
normal N to the grating plane. The normal N ' to the groove face makes an angle
θ relative to N. This angle is the blaze angle of the grating. Now let us require
that the diffracted beam satisfy both the condition of specular reflection from
the groove face and the condition for a principal maximum in the mth order (θ =
θm). The first condition is satisfied by making the angle of incidence equal to
the angle of reflection relative to N’ : θi – θb = θm + θb, or
 Eq 17-13

PICTURE 357

PICTURE 358

The second condition is that the angle θm satisfy the grating equation,
EQ 17-14

Equation (17-13) shows that the blaze angle depends on the angle of
incidence, so that various geometries requiring different blaze angles are
possible. In the general case, the equation that must be satisfied by the blaze
angle is found by combining Eqs. (17-13) and (17-14). Taking into account the
associated sign convention, the grating equation becomes
EQ 17-15

`We consider two special cases of Eq. (17-15). In the Littrow mount, the
light is brought in along or close to the groove IDce normal N', so that θb = θi
and θm = -θi , as is clear from Figure 17-6 and Eq. (17-13). For this special case,
Eq. (17-15) gives
EQ 17-16

`Since the quantity a sin θb corresponds to the steep-face height of the

groove (Figure 17 -6), we see that a gmting correctly blazed for wavelength λ
and order m in a Littrow mount must have a groove step of an integml number
m of half-wavelengths. Commerical gmtings are usually specified by their blaze
angles and the corresponding first-order Littrow wavelengths.
`In another configumtion, the light is introduced instead along the normal
N to the grating itself. Then θi = 0 and θb = -θm/2. Equation (17-15) now gives
EQ 17-17

GRADNG REPLICAS
The expense and difficulty of manufacturing gratings prohibit the routine use of
grating masters in spectroscopic instruments. Until the technique of making
reflicas - relatively inexpensive copies of the masters-was developed, few
research scientists owned a good grating. To make a replica grating the master
is first coated with a layer of nonadherent material, which can be lifted off the
master at a later stage. This is followed by a vacuum-evaporated overcoat of
aluminum. A layer of resin is then spread over the combination, and a substrate
for the future replica is placed on top. After the resin has hardened, the replica
grating can be seprated from the master. The first good replica grating usually
serves as a submaster for the routine production of other replicas. Thin replicas
made from a submaster are mounted on a glass or fused silica blank and a
highly reflective overcoat of aluminum is added. This is the usual form in which
the gratings are made commercially available. Replica gratings can be
purchased that are as good as or better than the masters, both in performance
and useful life. The efficiency of deep-groove replicas may be better than that of
the master because the replication process transfers the smooth parts of the
groove faces from bottom to top, improving performance.

INTERFERENCEGRADNGS
The availability of intense and highly coherent beams of light have made
possible the production of gratings apart from the rulings produced by grating
engines. As early as 1927, Michelson suggested the possibility of photographing
straight interference fringes using an optical system such as that shown in
Figure 17-7a. Two coherent, monochromatic beams are made to interfere,
producing standing waves in the region between the collimating lens and a
plane mirror. The resulting straight-line interference maxima are intercepted by
a light-sensitive film, inclined at an angle.When developed, straight-line fringes
appear.
Interference gratings produced by such optical techniques are also' called
holographic gratings, since a grating of uniformly spaced, parallel grooves can
be considered as a hologram of a point source at infinity. Other interferometric
systems. Such as that shown in Figure 17-7b, are essentially those used to
produce holograms. Today the interfering wave fronts are photographed on a
grainless film of photoresist whose solubility to the etchant is proportional to
the irradiance of exposure. The photoresist is spread evenly over the surface of
the glass blank to a thickness of 1 μm or less by rapidly spinning the blank.
When etched, the interference pattern is preserved in the form of transmission
grating grooves whose transmittance varies gradually across the groove in a
sine-squared profile. A reflective metallic coating is usually added to the
grating by vacuum evaporation. The fringe spacing d, as shown in Figure 17-7c,
is determined by the wavelength of the light and by the angle 20 between the
two interfering beams, according to the relation d = λ/(2 sin θ).

PICTURE 360

In addition to freedom from the expensive and laborious process of

machine ruling, the predominant advantage of the interference grating is the
absence of periodic or random errors in groove positions that produce ghosts
and grass, respectively. Thus interference gratings process impressive spectral
purity and provide a high signa to noice adv advantage. On the other hand,
control over groove profile, which affects the blazing and thus the eficiency of
the grating is not easily achieved. The groove profiles of normal interference
gratings are sine-squared in form and so symmetrical, rather than sawtooth-
shaped. as are the usual blazed gratings. Under normal incidence, a symetrical
groove profile results in an equal distribution of light in the positive and
negative orders of diffraction. When used under nonnormal incidence, however,
it is possible to disperse light into only one diffracted order (other than the
zeroth order), and it has been shown that in this case the distribution of light
does not depend to a great extent on groove shape. Efficiencies in this
configuration can be comparable to those blazed gratings. Nevertheless, various
efforts are in progress to produce groove shapes more like those of ordinary
blazed gratings by exposing the photoresist to two wavelengths of radiation
whose Fourier synthesis is more saw-toothed in shape, for example, or by
subsequent modification of the symmetrical grooves by argon-ion etching or in
a variety of other ways. Interference techniques are not practical in the
production of coarse, echellelike gratings .

GRATING INSTRUMENTS
An instrument that uses a grating as a spectral dispersing element is
designed around the type of grating selected for a particular application. An
inexpensive transmission grating may be mounted in place of the prism in a
spectroscope, where the spectrum is viewed with the eye, by means of a
telescope focused for infinity. The light incident on the grating is rendered
parallel by a primary slit and collimating lens. Research grade instruments,
however, make use of reflection gratings. These may be spectrographs, which
record a portion of the spectrum on a photographic plate, photodiode array, or
other image detector, or spectrometers, where a narrow portion of the spectrum
is allowed to pass through an exit slit onto a photomultiplier or other light flux
detector. In the latter case, the spectrum may be scanned by rotating the grating.
There are a number of designs possible; we describe briefly a few of the more
common ones. Figure 17-8 shows the basic Littrow mount, where a single
focusing element is used both to collimate the light incident on the plane grating
and, in the reverse direction, to focus the light onto the photographic plate
placed near the slit. Recall that in the Littrow conviguration light is incident
along the normal to the groove faces. The Littrow condition is also used in the
echelle spectrograph (Figure 17-9), which is designed to take advantage of the
high dispersion and resolution attainable with large angles of in cidence on a
blazed plane grating. As discussed previously, the useful order of diffraction is
large and th spectral free range is small, so that a second concave grating is used
to disperse the overlapping orders in a direction perpendicular to the dispersion
of the echelle grating. In the figure, a concave mirror collimates the light
incident on the echelle, located near the slit and oriented with grooves
horizontal. The light diffracted by the echelle is dispersed again by the concave
grating, oriented with grooves vertical The second grating also focuses the two-
dimensional spectrum onto the photographic plate. Figure 17- 10 shows a
Czerny-Turner system in a grating spectrometer. Light from an entrance slit is
directed by a plane mirror to a first concave mirror, which collimates the light
incident on the grating. The diffracted light is incident on a second concave
mirror, which then focuses the spectrum at the exit slit. As the grating is rotated,
the dispersed spectrum moves across the slit. When the instrument is used
specifically to select individual wavelengths from a discrete spectral source or
to allow a narrow wavelength range of spectrum through the exit slit, it is called
a monochromator.

PICTURE 361

Other instruments dispense with secondary focusing lenses or mirrors and

rely on concave gratings both to focus and to disperse the light. The grooves
ruled on a concave grating are equally spaced relative to a plane projection of
the surface, not relative to the concave surface it.'ielf. In this way, spherical
aberration and coma are eliminated. Concave grating instruments are used for
wavelengths in the soft X-ray (1 to 25 nm) and ultraviolet regions, extending
into the visible. The Paschen-Runge design, Figure 17 -11, makes use of the
Rowland circle. If the grating surface is tangent at its center with a circle having
a diameter equal to the radius of curvature of the concave grating, it can be
shown that a slit source placed anywhere on the circle gives well-focused
spectral lines that also full on the circle. If the light source and slit, grating, and
plate holder are placed in a dark room at three stable 'positions determined by
the Rowland circle and the grating equation, the basic requirements of the
puschen runge spectrograph are met. Since typical radii of curvature for the
grating may be around 6 m, the space occupied by this spectrograph can be
quite large. The first three orders of diffraction are most commonly used.
Typical angles of incidence may vary within the range 30° to 45°, and angles of
diffraction may vary between 25° on the oposite side of the grating normal to
85° on the same side of the normal as the slit. Thus much of the Rowland circle
is useful for recording various portions of the spectrum. In Figure 17-11, the
first-order spectrum spread (200 – 1200 nm) around the Rowland circle is
shown for θi = 38° and a grating of 1200 grooves/mm. Spectral lines formed in
this way may suffer rather severely from astigmatism. The Wadsworth
spectrograph (Figure 17-12) eliminates astigmatism by adding a primary mirror
to collimate the light incident on the grating. In so doing, the spectrograph
dispenses with the Rowland circle. Spectra are observed over a range making
small angles to the grating normal, perhaps 10° to either side. To record
different regions of the spectrum, the grating can be rotated and higher orders
can be used. This version of a grating spectrograph is capable of more compact
construction than is the Paschen Runge.
PICTURE 362 363