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Overlapping diffraction orders

A grating can send different wavelengths in different orders toward the same detector position.

Keep the incidence angle fixed

At normal incidence in air, a plane grating follows d sin β = mλ. Here d is the groove spacing, β is the angle from the normal and m is the integer order. Wavelengths with the same product mλ have the same diffraction direction.

Where 400 nm meets 800 nm

Take a groove spacing of 1.6 µm. First-order light at 800 nm and second-order light at 400 nm both give sin β = 0.5. Both emerge at 30° on the same side of the normal.

What a detector sees

A pixel at that angle can receive both wavelengths if the source, optics and detector pass them. Their relative signals depend on the grating efficiency and detector response. An order-sorting filter can reject the unwanted wavelength before detection.

Further reading