Diffraction by disordered gratings and the Debye-Waller effect

摘要

We analyze the effect of disorder in a slit array upon the resulting laser diffraction pattern. This problem is analogous to the Debye-Waller effect, which applies to x-ray scattering by crystals, where disorder is due to uncorrelated thermal vibrations. We have made quantitative measurements using equipment available at our undergraduate laboratory. The measurements were analyzed with the aid of phasor diagrams. (C) 1999 American Association of Physics Teachers. [References: 6]