Ruled Diffraction Gratings
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The first diffraction gratings made for commercial use were mechanically ruled, manufactured by burnishing grooves individually with a diamond tool against a thin coating of evaporated metal applied to a plane or concave surface. Replicas of such ruled gratings are used in many types of lasers, spectroscopic instrumentation and fiber-optic telecommunications equipment.
The most vital component in the production of ruled diffraction gratings is the apparatus, called a ruling engine, on which master gratings are ruled. MKS has four ruling engines in operation, each producing a substantial number of high-quality master gratings every year. Each of these engines produces gratings with very low Rowland ghosts, high resolving power, and high efficiency uniformity.
Selected diamonds, whose crystal axis is oriented for optimum behavior, are used to shape the grating grooves. The ruling diamonds are carefully shaped by skilled diamond toolmakers to produce the exact groove profile required for each grating. The carriage that moves the diamond back and forth during ruling must maintain its position to better than a few nanometers for ruling times that may last from one day to several weeks.
