Diffraction occurs when a wave encounters an obstruction in its path and will change direction, or wrap around it. In ocean waves, we see this occur when a wave encounters an object like a jetty and ...

The diffraction spikes so familiar to us in space images are an intrinsic property of the telescope. Reflecting telescopes have two mirrors: a large primary and a smaller secondary. Light hits the ...

IN the interesting article on “Photography of Diffraction and Polarisation” published in the issue of NATURE for August 7, the writer describes various means of producing diffraction effects. It may ...

A device that breaks up an electromagnetic wave into its different frequencies (wavelengths) by scattering them at different angles. For example, a series of thousands of scored lines in a glass plate ...

Diffraction-based analytical methods are widely used in laboratories, but they struggle to study samples that are smaller than a micrometer in size. Researchers have nevertheless been successful in ...

Definition: X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) is a powerful analytical technique used to characterize the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal. By measuring the angles and intensities of diffracted beams ...

The X-ray diffraction defined by Bragg's law is the sum total of diffraction patterns from molecules that strictly occupy the positions of a crystal's lattice units. Obtaining such a strictly ordered ...

The double-slit experiment, first performed by [Thomas Young] in 1801 provided the first definitive proof of the dual wave-particle nature of photons. A similar experiment can be performed that shows ...

A variety of ultrathin nanomechanical diffraction gratings that have been fashioned from the “wonder material” graphene have been created by an international team of researchers. The team wanted to ...