Editing Monochromator (section)

===Collimation===
The dispersion or diffraction is only controllable if the light is [[collimated]], that is if all the rays of light are parallel, or practically so. A source, like the sun, which is very far away, provides collimated light. [[Isaac Newton|Newton]] used sunlight in his [[Isaac Newton#Optics|famous experiments]]. In a practical monochromator, however, the light source is close by, and an optical system in the monochromator converts the diverging light of the source to collimated light. Although some monochromator designs do use focusing gratings that do not need separate collimators, most use collimating mirrors. Reflective optics are preferred because they do not introduce dispersive effects of their own.