An echelle grating (from French échelle, meaning "ladder") is a type of diffraction grating characterised by a relatively low groove density, but a groove shape which is optimized for use at high incidence angles and therefore in high diffraction orders. Higher diffraction orders allow for increased dispersion (spacing) of spectral features at the detector, enabling increased differentiation of these features. Echelle gratings are, like other types of diffraction gratings, used in spectrometers and similar instruments. They are most useful in cross-dispersed high resolution spectrographs, such as HARPS, PARAS, and numerous other astronomical instruments. 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 their characteristic form, 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. ...