Monochromators and the physics behind them

[Valce]

Hey! I'm looking for a textbook that talks about monochromators and the physics behind them to some extent. I've already started a general Photonics book along with some supplements, but my prof tells me I'll need to get something more specific to monochromators as well.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[berkeman]

Here's the intro wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monochromator

Not sure about textbooks -- seems like some optics books would cover them. I'm going to move this thread from EE to the General Physics forum to get some better feedback for you.

 

[Valce]

Thanks! By the way, should I be focusing more on wave or electromagnetic optics to understand how a monochromator works?

 

[berkeman]

Thanks! By the way, should I be focusing more on wave or electromagnetic optics to understand how a monochromator works?

Sorry, I don't understand the question. What do you mean by wave versus EM optics?

 

[cesiumfrog]

It's a simple wave effect, so EM is unnecessary.

 

[lightarrow]

It's a simple wave effect, so EM is unnecessary.

Well, actually, it depends: if he wants to go deep into refraction and dispersion mechanisms (in the case the monochromator uses a prism an not a diffractio grating to separate the wavelength), he needs EM too.

 

[cesiumfrog]

Well, actually, it depends: if he wants to go deep into refraction and dispersion mechanisms (in the case the monochromator uses a prism an not a diffractio grating to separate the wavelength), he needs EM too.

Wave optics is sufficient for refraction if the wave speed in each medium is known. (How is dispersion supposed to be relevant for a monochromator?) If he wants to go deeper (i.e., determine the wave speed for himself) he'll basically need QM, not just EM. EM alone might be able to give a deeper understanding of a grating, maybe. Still, it'd be silly to delve so far to understand something that is common to all classical wave systems, and in no way specific to electromagnetism. (In fact it's worse than that, since whatever is learned in that way can no longer be immediately applied to other common types of waves.)