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The compact disc as a diffraction grating
Haym Kruglak
Department of Physics, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. MI 49008,
USA

Most high school and college students have ob- npunl. Experimental arrangement for diffraction wilh a
served the rainbow colours on a compact disc IBser. L. laser; CD. wmwact disc.
(cD). This audio record provides the physics
teacher with another device for use in the lecture CD
room and laboratory.
The CD, with its closely spaced grooves and
reflecting aluminium plating, acts as a diffraction
grating. This accounts for the continuous spectra
seen in polychromatic light.
To use the CD as a grating, its surface should be
masked with a black, matt paper disc from which
a 0.03 x0.01 m rectangle has been cut out to
provide an entry for a light beam. The disc is then
supported so that its plane is vertical and the mask
opening horizontal (figure I).
With the CD I m away from a 3 m wide projec-
tion screen and a laser beam directed into the mask
,
W e 2. The schematic diagram for projecting a
opening, two diffraction orders were visible as mercury spectrum. A. mercury arc: B. compact disc;
bright spots. The distance between the first-order C, lens.
spots was 0.88 f0.005 m; between the second-order
spots, 2.65 f0.005 m. The internationally stan-
dardized distance between the CD grooves is
1.6 pm[1]. Usingnh=dsinO, thewavelengthofthe
laser with the above data is 644 nm for the first
order and 622nm for the second. Both values
agree within experimental uncertainties with the
manufacturer’s [2] value of 632 nm.
The spectrum of mercury can also be projected
with a high intensity arc [3]. However, a lens is
needed to focus the spectral lines (figure 2). Again
two orders are visible, but the second is much
fainter and more diffuse. With the CD I m from the
screen and a 0.5 m converging lens in front of it,

255
the distance between the left and right green lines
for the first order was 0.75+0.003m; for the
orange line, 0.803+0.003 m. The resulting wave-
lengths were 562 and 596 nm respectively, the first
within 3% and the second within 4% of the
standard wavelengths. The blue line was quite
faint and measurements were highly unreliable.
In the laboratory, a simple set-up is to place the
CD at 0.50 m from the light source slit and have a
metre-stick mounted horizontally below the slit.
With a 0.50 m lens the spectral lines can be focused
on the metre-stick. The CD may have to be tilted
slightly. With such an arrangement, the first-order
mercury lines can be determined to within 5% of
the accepted values. Of course, much more precise
results are obtainable with even the least expen-
sive transmission gratings. The uncertainty in the
distance between two adjacent CD grooves is
0.1 pm[4jor6%.
A good exercise in the laboratory is to have
students determine the CD groove separation with
a known wavelength.
The chief pedagogical value of using a CD is that
an important physics phenomenon can be illus-
trated with an object familiar to the student.
Reference8
[I] Pohlman K C 1989 The Compoer Disc: A Handbook of
Theory and Use (Madison, WE: A-R Editions)
[2] Metrologic Instruments Inc., Model #ML810,
I mW maximum
I31 Sargent-Welch, Cat. #S70580-10
[4] Lee I, 3M Optical Record Dept., private
communication