Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/paper-1/section-b/b8/a-beam-width/solution

A beam illuminates slits. The resolving power of a diffraction grating in order is , corresponding to a Rayleigh criterion separation . The separation therefore gives two well separated main peaks. The finite-grating incoherent doublet profile adds the mutually incoherent lamp intensities, not their amplitudes.
Figure 1.
Third-order doublet for two illuminated grating widths
. Original finite-N intensity sums, with equal line strengths and narrow slits. The horizontal coordinate is the wavelength inferred from the third-order grating equation. Each component is dashed and their incoherent sum is solid. Details.

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