Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-2/section-b/b8/c/solution

Let be horizontal position on the screen, , and use . The plotted interval is . With , and , the four-slit Fraunhofer diffraction intensity is the previous normalized expression evaluated at this angle. The total aperture width is , giving a Fresnel number of order , consistent with the far-field approximation.
Nominal principal array directions satisfy . Their screen positions are
Thus the visible nonzero orders are near , in addition to the central maximum. The even nonzero orders are missing diffraction orders: at the first envelope zero occurs at . The next envelope zero and direction lie at about , just beyond the screen edges.
At the nominal first and third array directions, and , respectively. The closest central minima satisfy , hence . Two small subsidiary array maxima occur between adjacent principal directions. The single-slit envelope slightly shifts the true off-axis maxima relative to the nominal principal array angles.
Figure 1.
Calculated four-slit intensity across the specified screen, with principal array directions and missing orders marked
. Details.

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