Single-Slit Fraunhofer Diffraction

Optical Engineering

How It Works

Fraunhofer diffraction occurs when planar monochromatic optical wavefronts pass through an aperture whose width (a) is comparable to the wavelength. Wavelets emerging from every point within the slit interfere at the far-field screen, generating a broad central intensity maximum flanked by lower-intensity secondary interference lobes governed by a sinc-squared intensity profile.

Governing Equation
I(θ) = I_0 · (sinβ / β)^2 , β = (π · a) / λ · sin(θ)