Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/s3/1/3/solution

For a transverse periodic row of scatterers of spacing , normal incidence makes their incident phases equal. Scattering at angle from that normal creates an outgoing path difference between neighbours. Constructive interference requires a phase difference , giving
Using this printed relation as the intended transverse diffraction grating model, the nonrelativistic neutron wavelength at is . Hence the first-order data give
Geometry qualification: this is not a derivation from reflection at crystal planes parallel to the surface, as the source prose says. The ordinary Bragg's law for planes of normal separation is , where is the incident glancing angle to those planes. At normal incidence on parallel planes, and specular reflected rays leave along the normal, so their angle from the normal is zero; they cannot obey the printed positive-order relation for . This is a concrete counterexample to identifying the two geometries. The numerical spacing above is therefore conditional on the printed grating-like relation, rather than a forced assertion that the stated Bragg geometry proves it.

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