Key Terms
- Bragg planes
- families of planes within crystals that can give rise to X-ray diffraction
- destructive interference for a single slit
- occurs when the width of the slit is comparable to the wavelength of light illuminating it
- diffraction
- bending of a wave around the edges of an opening or an obstacle
- diffraction grating
- large number of evenly spaced parallel slits
- diffraction limit
- fundamental limit to resolution due to diffraction
- hologram
- three-dimensional image recorded on film by lasers; the word hologram means entire picture (from the Greek word holo, as in holistic)
- holography
- process of producing holograms with the use of lasers
- missing order
- interference maximum that is not seen because it coincides with a diffraction minimum
- Rayleigh criterion
- two images are just-resolvable when the center of the diffraction pattern of one is directly over the first minimum of the diffraction pattern of the other
- resolution
- ability, or limit thereof, to distinguish small details in images
- two-slit diffraction pattern
- diffraction pattern of two slits of width D that are separated by a distance d is the interference pattern of two point sources separated by d multiplied by the diffraction pattern of a slit of width D
- width of the central peak
- angle between the minimum for and
- X-ray diffraction
- technique that provides the detailed information about crystallographic structure of natural and manufactured materials