Interference

 Interference is a light phenomenon .It

can be seen in everyday life. e.g.. colors
of oil film floating on water.
 General Concepts
 Optical Interferometer is an optical
measurement technique that provides extreme
precise measurements of distance,
displacement or shape and surface of objects.

 It exploits the phenomenon of light waves

interference .

Where under certain conditions a pattern of

dark and light bars called interference fringes
can be produced. Fringes can be analyzed to
present accurate measurements in the range of
nanometer.
Superposition of two waves
Interferometry refers to family of techniques where waves
superimposed to extract information about the waves
 OPTICAL FLAT
 An optical flat is an optical-grade piece of
glass lapped and polished to be extremely flat on
one or both sides, usually within a few
millionths of an inch (about 25 nanometres).
 They are used with a monochromatic light to
determine the flatness of other optical surfaces
by interference.
 When an optical flat is placed on another
surface and illuminated, the light waves reflect
off both the bottom surface of the flat and the
surface it is resting on.
 This causes a phenomenon similar to thin-film
interference. The reflected waves interfere,
creating a pattern of interference fringes visible
as light and dark bands.
OPTICAL FLAT

-PRECISION AND ACCURATE MEASUREMENT OF FLATNESS

-CYLINDRICAL PIECES 25-300MM IN DIA WITH THICKNESS 1/6TH OF DIAMETE

-MADE OF QUARTZ, GLASS, SAPPHIRE ETC.

 The spacing between the fringes is smaller where
the gap is changing more rapidly, indicating a
departure from flatness in one of the two surfaces,
in a similar way to the contour lines on a map.

 A flat surface is indicated by a pattern of straight,

parallel fringes with equal spacing, while other
patterns indicate uneven surfaces.
 Interferometer
 Interferometer:
Is an optical instrument that can produce
two beams interference or multiple beam
interference.

 wave front division interferometers:

Two light beams from the same wave
front are made to interfere to produce an
interference fringe pattern. Eg :Rayleigh
interferometer
Lloyd’s mirror
 Amplitude-division interferometers:
A light beam from one source point is
divided into two beams using a beam
splitter.
e.g. Michelson’s interferometer
 Michelson interferometer
 Configuration:
Michelson interferometer consists of a coherent
light source, a beam splitter BS a reference mirror
,a movable mirror and a screen .

 Applications:
There are many measurements that Michelson
interferometer can be used for, absolute distance
measurements, optical testing and measure gases
refractive index.
Michelson interferometer
 Work method:
The BS divides the incident
beam into two parts one travel to
the reference mirror and the other
to the movable mirror .both parts
are reflected back to BS
recombined to form the
interference fringes on the
screen.
 Twyman-Green interferometer
 Configuration:
 A modified configuration of Michelson
interferometer ( rotatable mirror& a
monochromatic point source)

 Applications: length measurements, optical testing

e.g. lenses ,prisms, mirrors.

 Work method:
When the interferometer aligned properly, two images
of the light source S from the two mirrors M1&M2 will
coincide. The superposed waves are parallel and have a
constant phase difference. On the screen a uniform
illumination can be seen with a constant intensity
depends on the path difference.

 Mirror imperfections test:

There will be an interference fringes due to the path
difference between W2 and the reference plan wave W1
APPLICATIONS
 In science and industry for measurement of small
displacements,refractive index changes and surface
irregularities.
 Physics and Astronomy.
 Engineering and applied science .
 Biology and medicine.