Scattering analysis about the visible diffraction orders of the reflective grating

On basis of the scattering theory, we analyze the distribution of diffraction orders of a one-dimensional reflection grating. From the inequality satisfied by the incident angle and the diffraction order, we determine the visible diffraction orders and discuss the variation of the number of the diffraction orders with the incident angle and the grating period. We find the visible diffraction orders are always more than those obtained according to the traditional grating theory. The practical experiment is performed too, and the experimental results verify the theoretical predictions.