Missing diffraction order 2026-10-18
A missing diffraction order occurs when a principal maximum of an array factor coincides with a zero of the individual aperture's diffraction envelope. For identical slits of width and centre spacing , order has . It is missing if is a nonzero integer. This is cancellation of field contributions, not loss of the incident wavelength or a failure of the grating equation.
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 areThus 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.
