diffraction grating

A polished surface, usually glass or metal, having a large number of very fine parallel grooves or slits, and used to produce optical spectra by diffraction of reflected or transmitted light.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

diffraction grating

(General Physics) a glass plate or a mirror with a large number of equidistant parallel lines or grooves on its surface. It causes diffraction of transmitted or reflected light, ultraviolet radiation, or X-rays

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

diffrac′tion grat`ing

a reflective surface etched with fine lines that is used to produce optical spectra by diffraction.

[1865–70]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

diffraction grating - optical device consisting of a surface with many parallel grooves in it; disperses a beam of light (or other electromagnetic radiation) into its wavelengths to produce its spectrum

grating

echelon - a diffraction grating consisting of a pile of plates of equal thickness arranged stepwise with a constant offset

optical device - a device for producing or controlling light

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References in periodicals archive

The company refers to the product as Light Scattering Effects in bright and changing colours and states that the technology can be used to make authentication labels, and it can also be used as a contamination indicator by making the diffraction grating swell in the presence of water or other liquids.

ISCENT's new Holo-like optical material

Project manager Francis Tuffy told Holography News that this required the translation of colour values in to angles, as the company's proprietary software predicts the colour shifts of specific diffraction grating pixels.

Ford-UK DERA link for Holographic Imaging

The optical layout for the spectrograph is simple; light emerging from the fibers is collimated by a lens and strikes the diffraction grating. The grating disperses the beam, and a second lens focuses the spectrum onto the CCD.

Building a fiber-optic spectrograph

David Rittenhouse, inventor of the diffraction grating, had no idea that one of his leisure-time experiments could someday lead to a better understanding of the composition of stars.

America's foremost early astronomer

The new research clarifies a phenomenon noted in the 1940s: Electrons of a certain energy beamed at a metal diffraction grating produce unusually intense radiation.

Electrons may shed light for X-ray lasers

Other patents for dot matrix systems had already been issued, notably US patent 5,291,317 for 'Holographic diffraction patterns' issued to Craig Newswanger, and US patent 5,058,992 (and Japanese 63-222477 and '478) for Method of producing a display with a diffraction grating pattern and a display produced by the method'.

Dot matrix US patent issues