Editing Diffraction (section)

==History==
[[Image:Young Diffraction.png|right|thumb|Thomas Young's sketch of two-slit diffraction for water [[ripple tank]] from his [[1807 in science|1807]] ''Lectures''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cantor |first=G. N. |title=Optics after Newton: theories of light in Britain and Ireland, 1704-1840 |date=1983 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-0938-9 |location=Manchester, UK; Dover, N.H., USA}}</ref>{{rp|139}}]]

The effects of diffraction of [[light]] were first carefully observed and characterized by [[Francesco Maria Grimaldi]], who also coined the term ''diffraction'', from the [[Latin]] ''diffringere'', 'to break into pieces', referring to light breaking up into different directions.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Komech |first1=Alexander |title=The Early Theory of Diffraction |date=2019 |work=Stationary Diffraction by Wedges : Method of Automorphic Functions on Complex Characteristics |pages=15–17 |editor-last=Komech |editor-first=Alexander |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26699-8_2 |access-date=2024-04-25 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-26699-8_2 |isbn=978-3-030-26699-8 |last2=Merzon |first2=Anatoli |editor2-last=Merzon |editor2-first=Anatoli}}</ref> The results of Grimaldi's observations were published posthumously in [[1665 in science|1665]].<ref>Francesco Maria Grimaldi, ''Physico mathesis de lumine, coloribus, et iride, aliisque annexis libri duo'' (Bologna ("Bonomia"), Italy: Vittorio Bonati, 1665), [https://books.google.com/books?id=FzYVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA2 page 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201153749/https://books.google.com/books?id=FzYVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA2|date=2016-12-01}}:  <blockquote>''Original'' :  Nobis alius quartus modus illuxit, quem nunc proponimus, vocamusque; diffractionem, quia advertimus lumen aliquando diffringi, hoc est partes eius multiplici dissectione separatas per idem tamen medium in diversa ulterius procedere, eo modo, quem mox declarabimus.</blockquote>  <blockquote>''Translation'' :  It has illuminated for us another, fourth way, which we now make known and call "diffraction" [i.e., shattering], because we sometimes observe light break up; that is, that parts of the compound [i.e., the beam of light], separated by division, advance farther through the medium but in different [directions], as we will soon show.</blockquote></ref><ref>Cajori, Florian [https://archive.org/details/ahistoryphysics00cajogoog/page/n102 <!-- pg=88 quote=Florian Cajori history of physics. --> "A History of Physics in its Elementary Branches, including the evolution of physical laboratories."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201075614/https://books.google.com/books?id=KZ4C-1CRtYQC&ots=c_YpkkbTpT&dq=Florian%20Cajori%20history%20of%20physics&pg=PA88|date=2016-12-01}} MacMillan Company, New York 1899</ref> [[Isaac Newton]] studied these effects and attributed them to ''inflexion'' of light rays. [[James Gregory (astronomer and mathematician)|James Gregory]] ([[1638]]–[[1675]]) observed the diffraction patterns caused by a bird feather, which was effectively the first [[diffraction grating]] to be discovered.<ref>Letter from James Gregory to John Collins, dated 13 May 1673.  Reprinted in:  ''Correspondence of Scientific Men of the Seventeenth Century …'', ed. Stephen Jordan Rigaud (Oxford, England: [[Oxford University Press]], 1841), vol. 2, pp. 251–255, especially [https://books.google.com/books?id=0h45L_66bcYC&pg=PA254 p. 254] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201061930/https://books.google.com/books?id=0h45L_66bcYC&pg=PA254 |date=2016-12-01 }}.</ref> [[Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]] performed a [[Young's interference experiment|celebrated experiment]] in [[1803 in science|1803]] demonstrating interference from two closely spaced slits.<ref>{{Cite journal|author = Thomas Young|date = 1804-01-01|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7AZGAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1|title=The Bakerian Lecture: Experiments and calculations relative to physical optics|journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London]]|volume = 94|pages = 1–16|doi = 10.1098/rstl.1804.0001|bibcode = 1804RSPT...94....1Y|s2cid = 110408369|doi-access = free}}.  (Note: This lecture was presented before the Royal Society on 24 November 1803.)</ref> Explaining his results by interference of the waves emanating from the two different slits, he deduced that light must propagate as waves.

In 1818, supporters of the  [[corpuscular theory of light]] proposed that the [[Paris Academy]] prize question address diffraction, expecting to see the wave theory defeated. However, 
[[Augustin-Jean Fresnel]] took the prize with his new theory wave propagation,<ref>Fresnel, Augustin-Jean (1818), "Mémoire sur la diffraction de la lumière" ("Memoir on the diffraction of light"), deposited 29&nbsp;July 1818, "crowned" 15&nbsp;March 1819, published in ''Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de l'Institut de France'', vol.&nbsp;{{serif|V}} (for 1821 & 1822, printed 1826), [https://books.google.com/books?id=zNo-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA339 pp.&nbsp;339–475]; reprinted in ''Oeuvres complètes d'Augustin Fresnel'', vol.&nbsp;1 (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1866), [https://books.google.com/books?id=1l0_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA247 pp.&nbsp;247–364]; partly translated as [https://archive.org/details/wavetheoryofligh00crewrich/page/80 "Fresnel's prize memoir on the diffraction of light"], in H.{{nnbsp}}Crew (ed.), ''The Wave Theory of Light: Memoirs by Huygens, Young and Fresnel'', American Book Company, 1900, pp.&nbsp;81–144. (First published, as extracts only, in ''Annales de Chimie et de Physique'', vol.&nbsp;11 (1819), pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=SSRQAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA246 246–96], [https://books.google.com/books?id=SSRQAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA337 337–78].)</ref> combining the ideas<ref>Christiaan Huygens, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_X9PKaZlChggC ''Traité de la lumiere'' …] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616191659/https://books.google.com/books?id=X9PKaZlChggC&pg=PP5 |date=2016-06-16 }} (Leiden, Netherlands: Pieter van der Aa, 1690), Chapter 1. From [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_X9PKaZlChggC/page/n94 p. 15] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201064555/https://books.google.com/books?id=X9PKaZlChggC&pg=PA15 |date=2016-12-01 }}:  ''"J'ay donc monstré de quelle façon l'on peut concevoir que la lumiere s'etend successivement par des ondes spheriques, … "'' (I have thus shown in what manner one can imagine that light propagates successively by spherical waves, … )  (Note:  Huygens published his ''[[Treatise on Light|Traité]]'' in 1690; however, in the preface to his book, Huygens states that in 1678 he first communicated his book to the French Royal Academy of Sciences.)</ref> of [[Christiaan Huygens]] with Young's interference concept. [[Siméon Denis Poisson]] challenged the Fresnel theory by showing that it predicted light in the shadow behind a circular obstruction; [[Dominique-François-Jean Arago]] proceeded to demonstrate experimentally that such [[Arago spot|light is visible]], confirming Fresnel's diffraction model.<ref name=BornWolf-1980>{{Cite book |last1=Born |first1=Max |title=Principles of optics: electromagnetic theory of propagation, interference and diffraction of light |last2=Wolf |first2=Emil |date=1980 |publisher=Pergamon Press |isbn=978-0-08-026482-0 |edition=6 |location=Oxford New York}}</ref>{{rp|xxiii}}<ref>{{cite book|title = A Treatise on Optics|author = Sir David Brewster|year = 1831|publisher = Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green and John Taylor|location = London|pages = [https://archive.org/details/atreatiseonopti00brewgoog/page/n113 95]|url = https://archive.org/details/atreatiseonopti00brewgoog}}</ref>