PHYS 352, Spring 2013
Fraunhofer diffraction maxima. A monochromatic beam (=643 nm) passes through an aperture of
width 2.5 m. Solve for the first several angles, m, of the diffraction maxima in the Fraunhofer limit two
different ways:
a. By graphical analysis of a transcendental equation in , where =0.5kbsin(). The aperture width is b.
The wave number is k.
b. By iteration. You might choose to use Newton’s method. Start the iterations with values near, but not
equal to, your answers from part a. Newton’s method only converges when the starting point is close to
the final answer. Feel free to use a more sophisticated numerical iteration technique if you wish.