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diffraction grating

diffraction grating

8.4
A flat piece with many close lines that splits light into colors
  • noun
  • /dɪˈfrækʃən ˈɡreɪtɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : rejilla de difracción
  • Light from a star, or from any natural or artificial source, can be spread into a spectrum of separate colors by using a prism or a similar device called a diffraction grating.

So it did suggest that X-rays are waves and that crystals could be used as a diffraction, as a diffraction grating for them.

Examples

  • The scientist used a diffraction grating to analyze the light emitted by the stars and produce a detailed spectrum.

  • On a dean vertical, the layering resembles a diffraction grating: fine thin grooves, perfectly horizontal, broken occasionally by what must be the sections of ancient buried craters.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • We're going to send it through a diffraction grating essentially.

  • So I have here a diffraction grating, which is which is going to break the the light out into into its its spectrum of colours.

  • And that's what's going on with the diffraction grating, OK.

  • These devices contain diffraction gratings, which separate the wavelengths of infrared radiation in much the same way that a prism separates visible light into colors.

    Blog text (15)
  • Light was dispersed—for example, by a prism or diffraction grating—and the intensity measured as a function of wavelength.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Upon up-conversion, the new signal photon has a temporally varying frequency; it can then be compressed and shaped via a dispersive delay line, typically made with diffraction gratings.

    Academic text (2012)
  • A diffraction grating disperses light into its component wavelengths, allowing us to observe a spectrum.

  • When light passes through a diffraction grating, it separates into different colors, creating a vivid spectrum.

Synonyms

echelon
vsdiffraction grating
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A device of stacked plates that spreads light into colors

is a general form using many closely spaced grooves rather than stacked plates
grating
vsdiffraction grating
  • Specialized
1 8.7

A piece of glass or metal with many fine lines that splits light into colors

is limited to light rather than to other electromagnetic radiation

How Dispersive

diffraction grating
  • Specialized
8.4
to prism
  • Specialized
8.1

Surface Forms

Morphology

diffraction + grating

The compound is transparently compositional: 'diffraction' names the wave-bending phenomenon and 'grating' denotes an optical element with parallel grooves, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer a device that produces/uses diffraction to disperse light. This follows a common noun+noun technical naming pattern with clear cross-linguistic equivalents, so the meaning is directly derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Diffraction grating comes from the idea of a grating, a surface with many close, parallel grooves, and diffraction, the bending of light at those grooves. When light hits the grooves it bends and the colors spread out, so the name means 'a surface that makes light split into its colors'.