MICHELSON

INTERFEROMETER
 Purpose and history
Invented by Albert Michelson employing
optical interferometry , became well known
for its use in the famous Michelson Morley
experiment (1887) disproving the presence of
ether and leading to the special theory of
relativity that revolutionized twentieth
century physics .Its recent application being
the recent detection of gravitational
waves(2015) confirming an important
prediction of general relativity.
 Structure and Working
• The instrument consists of two mirrors
• A beam splitter(partially reflective)
• A source of light
It works by splitting a beam of monochromatic
light into two equal amplitude beams . One
beam hits a fixed mirror and the other hits a
moveable mirror giving different beam lengths
which converge on a detector screen giving an
interference pattern.
 WHAT DOES THIS INTERFERENCE
PATTERN TELL US?

The change in path difference is twice the distance d that the

mirror moves because the light must travel to the moveable mirror
then back to the splitter. In order for an intensity maximum at the
detector (constructive interference) the condition m =2d λ where
m is any integer must be satisfied
A path difference of 0 will result in constructive interference while
a total path difference of a half wavelength will produce complete
destructive interference.
The alternating light and dark rings produced are called fringes (m).
 Other Uses
With the initial purpose of detecting ether
, eventually leading to the special relativity,
validating a postulate of general relativity
,it is also used in fields like Fiber Optics,
optical coherence tomography , tunable
narrow band filter , Fourier transform
spectroscopy as well