Sultan Qaboos University

College of Science
Department of Physics

The Michelson
Interferometer
Experimental Methods of Physics III (Physics 5105)

Done by: Saif Nasser Al-Omairi
ID #: 83721
Submitted on : 17/10/2012




Abstract:

The spacing between the lines of the doublet of sodium was
measured using the Michelson interferometer. The value found is
(0.61 0.03) nm which is nearly to known value of = (0.610.03) nm.

1. Introduction and theory

The sodium light can be studied by studying the spectrum of the
sodium. When a current exist the sodium atoms they emit a surprisingly
simple spectrum, almost monochromatic. There are two wavelengths for
sodium .These two wavelengths occur because of the two kinds of splitting
that happen between the nucleus and the electron and the second one due
to the spin angular momentum of the electrons, which was called the fine
splitting. In this experiment, the difference between the two wavelengths
of the sodium was calculated. That happens due to the fine splitting. In this
report, the first section is the theory of the Michelson interferometer. The
second section is the experimental section. After that, the third section is
the data section. Also, some discussion before the conclusion section
.Finally, the references section.[1]
Figure 1 show the Michelson interferometer. The light beam gets
splitter by a beam splitter into two beams at the point O. One beam is
reflected and the other one is transmitted. The reflected beam goes to the
mirror M1 and the other one is transmitted to mirror M2 .Then both
beams will be reflecting back from the two mirrors to the point O. Then the
two beams travel parallel to each toward the screen .The two mirrors have
to be perpendicular to each other. A compensator is presents between the
beam splitter and mirror M1.The compensator is included because if we
dont have it the two light will travel a different distance in the beam
splitter and this will make the two light do not interfere with each other .
That is because as we can see that the light beam that goes to the mirror
M1 (OA) passes through the compensator once only and three times for
the beam that goes to mirror M2 (OB). If we have a laser beam then we will
not need the compensator because laser is a coherent light. [1]



Figure 1. The principle of the Michelson interferometer.

When the two mirror are perpendicular to each other we will have
the interference that is look like dark and bright rings .If the two mirrors
are not perfectly perpendicular to each other then we will see aside of the
interference pattern that are far from the center of the rings. Also we have
a micrometer which allows us to move the mirror M2 back and forth and
there are to screws behind the mirror M2 which allows us to move the two
lines up or down.[2]
The light intensity at a given point and how this intensity changes
when we change some of the parameter of the spectrometer is an
important quantity in the Michelson interferometer.
If we have two light beams of same amplitude

same frequency
but with a different phase .
Then,

( ) ()
And,

( ) (2)


Where

is the amplitude of the first wave and

is the amplitude of the

second wave and t is the time. K=2/
The intensity I= 2

(1+ cos(()) ()
Where

is the irradiance of each of the beams, the permittivity of

free space is

and C is the speed of light in vacuum .So we will have a

constructive interference when cos() is 1 and constructive interfere
when cos ()= -1.
In our experiment we have a phase difference because of the
difference in the optical path between OAO and OBO.
The optical path difference between the two light beams is =2OA-
OB. Where OA is the optical path of the beam that goes back and forth
from M1 and OB is the optical path of the beam that is reflected from
M2.The Phase difference between them is

(4)
For consecutive interference =2m , m=1, 2,3,.. Or we can write it
as =2OA-OB=m . As we move the mirror M2 back and forth we are
actually changing the optical path difference and for that the phase will
change and the rings will move either up or down depending if we are
increasing and decreasing the optical path. Once we counts the number of
rings that passes a given point for a given displacement and having the
wavelength of the light beam then the displacement can be calculated from

(5)
From that we get,
d =

(6)

Where d is the displacement of mirror M1 and N is the number of rings.[3]





2. Apparatus

In this experiment the Michelson interferometer was used. As
shown in the figure (2), the parts that the interferometer is consisting. The
beam splitter was used to split the light beam to two parts (reflected and
transmitted).Also, mercury lamp to produce light beam and the fixed
mirror to reflect the light beam.


Figure 2. A photograph of the Michelson interferometer used in the experiment..

To do the experiment, the interferometer was adjusted and the
mercury lamp was placed in it is bracket. In the front of the unpolished
glass, the green filter was placed that has crossed lines. The interference
would be seen, if the mirrors are well adjusted.






3. Experimental procedure and result discussion
There are two parts in this section. First one is the Calibration of the
micrometer and the second one is a sodium doublet.

3.1. Part (1): Calibration of the micrometer

In the first part, to calculate how many mm the mirror M1 was moved
if the micrometer was moved by 1mm.To do that the mercury lamp was
used as a source of light beam and the mirror M2 was adjusted by using
the two screws to get the two lines exactly on the top of each other. Then
the rings were able to see it and if nothing happen adjust the screw very
carefully. After that, by moving the micrometer, the rings were moved up
or down depending of the movement of the micrometer. When the
micrometer was moved, the numbers of rings pass through the crossed
line in 1 mm were counted. The wavelength of the mercury beam is 546.1
nm. By using equation (6) the displacement of the mirror (d) was
calculated.
The number of fringes that pass the reference lines as the micrometer
moves or displacement of the mirror .The displacement was calculated by
using this equation:

The wavelength for the mercury light is = (546.1) nm. The average
displacement was estimated. All this data was represented in the table (1).






Table 1: The number of fringes and the mirror displacement.
Displacement (mm) Number of fringes
0.23 850
0.25 900
0.24 880
0.23 830

From the table 1 if the micrometer was moved by one millimeter, the
mirror was moved about d= (0.24 ) mm. The error happened
when the fringes was counted which is very close to each other.

3.2. Part2: The sodium doublet.
In the second part, the Michelson interferometer was used to
calculate the separation between two closely spaced lines in the sodium.
There are two wavelengths for the sodium and they are very close to each
other. So, there are two set of interferometer rings, one for each
wavelength. To see the fringes clearly, bring the two wavelengths
and to a good contrast. The two wavelengths will be in a good
contrast if both of them are at maximum at the center as the mirror was
moved forth or back. At some position the rings disappear because one
beam has maximum and the other one has minimum.[2]

In this part of experiment, first, the mercury lamp was replaced with
the sodium lamp in the interferometer. The micrometer was moved until a
good contrast (maximum) was appeared and the position of the
micrometer was readied. Then the mirror was moved until the rings
disappeared and then a good contrast was appeared again. At that time the
reading of the micrometer was taking. The difference between the two
reading is L. the wavelength of the sodium beam =589.29 nm.[4] The
spacing between the two lines of the sodium was calculated by using
equation:

The data was collected from the second experiment between two a
good contrasts. After that, the spacing between the two lines of the
doublet was calculated by the equation

The wavelength of the sodium light is = (589.29) nm. The experiment was
repeated for three times. All the data of this part are in table 2.

Table 2: Data of the spacing between the two lines of the doublet.

(nm)
L(mm)
(second max
first max)(mm)
Second max
contrast
(mm)
First max
contrast (mm)
0.547 0.626 2.61 13.87 11.26
0.598 0.581 2.42 12.66 10.24
0.695 0.511 2.13 13.27 11.14

Example of calculation:
L= (second maximum contrast first maximum contrast) x (the average
displacement)
L= (13.87-11.26) x (0.24) = 0.626 mm
The spacing between the two lines of the doublet =0.547 nm by using
equation

() =0.027 nm was calculated by using the equation:
()

The average of the =0.613 nm .It means the value of the spacing
between the two lines of the sodium doublet is ( () ) =
(0.6103) nm. This result is in the range of the known value of
(0.60.03) nm.


iscussion D . 4

After doing this experiment, counting the rings as moving the
micrometer is difficult and it is harmful to our eyes. There are two
suggestions to avoid the counting errors and enhance the experiment. The
first thing is using a small scale in term of micrometer rather than in mm
so that the rings will move slowly and the counting becomes easier and
more accurate. The second suggestion is to count the rings digitally. This
will save time and become very accurate.

5. Conclusion

At the end of this experiment the two aims of it are achieved
successfully. The experiment was done in two parts. In the first part the
mirror displacement was measured to be d= (0.2400.002) mm. In the
second part, the separation between two closely spaced lines of sodium
spectrum was measured to be ( () ) = (0.6103) nm. This value
is in the range of the known value of (0.60.03) nm.











6. References

[1] Theoretical optics. (Author: Hartman Romer14/4/2009)
( Puplished by: WILEY VCH)

[2]:http://www.phy.davidson.edu/stuhome/cabell_f/diffractionfinal
/pages/Michelson.htm
(10/11/2012)

[3]: http://qis.ucalgary.ca/quantech/471/labs/michel.pdf.
(15/11/2012)

[4] Lab manual of PYS5105 ( Experimental Methods of physics ).