Blazed grating

A blazed grating also called echelette grating (from French chelle = ladder) is a special type of
diffraction grating. It is optimized to achieve maximum grating efficiency in a given diffraction
order. For this purpose, maximum optical power is concentrated in the desired diffraction order
while the residual power in the other orders (particularly the zeroth) is minimized. Since this
condition can only exactly be achieved for one wavelength, it is specified for which blaze
wavelength the grating is optimized (or blazed). The direction in which maximum efficiency is
achieved is called the blaze angle and is the third crucial characteristic of a blazed grating directly
depending on blaze wavelength and diffraction order.

Blaze angle
Like every optical grating, a blazed grating has a constant line spacing d, determining the
magnitude of the wavelength splitting caused by the grating. The grating lines possess a triangular,
sawtooth-shaped cross section, forming a step structure. The steps are tilted at the so-called blaze
angle

with respect to the grating surface. Accordingly, the angle between step normal and

grating normal is

The blaze angle is optimized to maximize efficiency for the wavelength of the used light.
Descriptively, this means

is chosen such that the beam diffracted at the grating and the beam

B deflected into the same direction. Commonly blazed gratings are

reflected at the steps are both
manufactured in so called Littrow configuration.

Littrow configuration

Diffraction at a blazed grating

The Littrow configuration is a special geometry in which the blaze angle is chosen such that
diffraction angle and incidence angle are identical. For a reflection grating, this means that the
diffracted beam is back-reflected into the direction of the incident beam (blue beam in picture). The
beams are perpendicular to the step and therefore parallel to the step normal. Hence it holds in
Littrow configuration

== B

Diffraction angles at the grating are not influenced by the step structure. They are determined by the
line spacing and can be calculated according to the grating equation

d ( sin+sin )=m
where
d= line spacing,
= incidence angle,
= diffraction angle,
= diffraction order,
= wavelength of incident light.
For Littrow configuration, this becomes

2dsin =m

. By solving for

the blaze angle can

B order, wavelength and line

B spacing
be calculated for arbitrary combinations of diffraction

B =arcsin

m
.
2d

Blazed transmission grating

Blazed gratings can also be realized as transmission gratings. In this case the blaze angle is chosen
such that the angle of the desired diffraction order coincides with the angle of the beam refracted at
the grating material.

Echelle grating
A special form of a blazed grating is the echelle grating. It is characterized by particularly large
blaze angle (>45). Therefore the light hits the short legs of the triangular grating lines instead of

the long legs. Echelle gratings are mostly manufactured with larger line spacing but are optimized
for higher diffraction orders.
Echelle gratings are useful in planet-finding astronomy, and are used on the successful HARPS
spectrograph.

Echelle grating
An echelle grating (from French, chelle, meaning stairs or ladder) is a type of diffraction grating
characterised by a relatively low groove density, but a groove shape which is optimized for use at a
high incidence angle and therefore in high diffraction orders. Echelle gratings are, like other types
of diffraction grating, used in spectrometers and similar instruments. They are most useful in crossdispersed high resolution spectrographs, such as HARPS, PARAS (PRL Advanced Radial Velocity
Abu Sky Search) and numerous other astronomical instruments.

Echelle Spectrometer: The first standard grating is optimized for a single lower order,
while multiple higher orders of the echelle have an optimized output intensity. Both
diffractive elements are mounted orthogonally in such a way that the highly illuminated
orders of the echelle are transversally separated. Since only parts of the full spectrum of
each individual order lie in the illuminated region, only portions of the different orders
overlap spectrally (i.e. green line in red portion).

History
The concept of a coarsely-ruled grating used at grazing angles was discovered by Albert Michelson
in 1898, where he referred to it as an "echelon". However, it was not until 1923 that echelle
spectrometers began to take on the form that is now characteristic of an echelle spectrometer, in
which the high-resolution grating is used in tandem with a crossed low-dispersion grating. This
configuration was discovered by Nagaoka and Mishima and has been used in a similar layout ever
since.

Principle

As with other diffraction gratings, the echelle grating conceptually consists of a number of slits with
widths close to the wavelength of the diffracted light. The light of a single wavelength in a standard
grating at normal incidence is diffracted to the central zero order and successive higher orders at
specific angles, defined by the grating density/wavelength ratio and the selected order. The angular
spacing between higher orders monotonically decreases and higher orders can get very close to each
other, while lower ones are well separated. The intensity of the diffraction pattern can be altered by
tilting the grating. With reflective gratings (where the holes are replaced by a highly reflective
surface), the reflective portion can be tilted (blazed) to scatter a majority of the light into the
preferred direction of interest (and into a specific diffraction order). For multiple wavelengths the
same is true; however, there it is possible that longer wavelengths of a higher order might overlap
with the next order(s) of a shorter wavelength, which usually is an unwanted side effect.
In echelle gratings, however, this behaviour is deliberately used and the blaze is optimized for
multiple overlapping higher orders. Since this overlap is not directly useful, a second,
perpendicularly mounted dispersive element (grating or prism) is inserted as an "order separator" or
"cross disperser" into the beam path. Hence the spectrum consists of stripes with different, but
slightly overlapping, wavelength ranges that run across the imaging plane in an oblique pattern.
Exactly this behaviour helps to overcome imaging problems with broadband, high-resolution
spectroscopic devices, like utilization of extremely long, linear detection arrays or strong defocus or
other aberrations and makes the use of readily available 2D-detection arrays feasible, which reduces
measurement times and improves efficiency.