An arrangement consisting of a large number of equidistant parallel narrow slits of equal width separated by equal opaque portions is known as a diffraction grating.
The plane transmission grating is a plane sheet of transparent material on which opaque rulings are made with a fine diamond pointer. The modern commercial form of grating contains about 6000 lines per centimeter.
The rulings act as obstacles having a definite width ‘b’ and the transparent space between the rulings act as slit of width ‘a’. The combined width of a ruling and a slit is called grating element (e). Points on successive slits separated by a distance equal to the grating element are called corresponding points.
