The objective of this lab is to compare the diffraction behavior of light waves between a CD and DVD. CDs and DVDs contain regularly spaced micrometer sized features which can act like a diffraction grating. Using commercial electronic storage devices like CDs and DVDs as gratings rather than commercially produced plan transmission gratings enhances student interest in the activity and also opens up a discussion on the trend of improving storage capacity with the invention of Blu-ray and layered DVDs. By conducting this experiment the students should be able to calculate the spacing between tracks of a CD and DVD. This lab also incorporates nanotechnology by including AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) images of a CD and DVD for the students to compare with their macro-scale data.

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Rama Balachandran and Karen Porter-Davis

NNIN RET Program at Georgia Institute of Technology NSF ECC 0601939 and NNIN NSF ECCS 0335765

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Rama Balachandran, Karen Porter Davis, NNCI Nano (2020), "CDs and DVDs as Diffraction Gratings," https://nanohub.org/resources/31937.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. atomic force microscopy (AFM)
2. Diffraction
3. diffraction grating
4. high school
5. K-12
6. light
7. light waves
8. materials science
9. microscopy
10. NNCI Educational Materials
11. optical properties
12. Physics