INTERFEROMETRY

By
Prof.P.P.Kharche

MQC : UNIT-3
 Principle of Interference

If two rays of same wavelength meet

at some point, mutual interference occurs
& natural interference depends on Phase of
two waves at their meeting point.

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 •If two rays are in same
phase,
then resulting
intensity will be the sum of
two intensity.

•If two rays are out of

phase, then resulting intensity
will be the difference
of two intensity.
•If two rays having same
amplitude are in same
phase, then resultant will be
twice & result will be
Bright spot.

•If two rays having same

amplitude are out of phase,
then resultant will be zero &
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result will be Dark spot.
 Types of Interferometers
1. Michelson Interferometer
2. Fabry-Perot Interferometer
3. Fringe counting Interferometer
4. NPL Flatness Interferometer
5. Pitter-NPL Interferometer
6. Zeiss gauge block
Interferometer
7. Multiple beam Interferometer
8. Laser Interferometer
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NPL Flatness Interferometer
The NPL flatness interferometer is used
for checking flatness between gauge
surfaces.

(a) Equal fringes (b) Unequal fringes

on parallel due to flatness
error

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•The light from a mercury vapour
lamp is condensed and passed through
a green filter, resulting in a green
monochromatic light source.
•The light will now pass through a
pinhole, giving an intense point source
of monochromatic light.
•Therefore, the collimating lens
projects a parallel beam of light onto
the face of the gauge to be tested via
an optical flat.
•This results in the formation of
interference fringes.
The light beam, which carries an
image of the fringes, is reflected back
and directed by 90° using a glass plate
reflector.
 •In Fig. (a), the fringes are
parallel and equal in number
on the two surfaces. Obviously,
the two surfaces are parallel,
which means that the gauge
surface is perfectly flat.

(a) Equal fringes (b) Unequal fringes •On the other hand, in Fig. (b),
on parallel due to flatness the number of fringes is
error
unequal and, since the base
plate surface is ensured to be
perfectly flat, the work piece
surface has a flatness error
a) Pitch and direction of both fringe sets
is same. So perfectly flat and parallel
gauge.

b) Same direction but different

pitch. So taper along larger edge of
gauge.
c) Same pitch but different direction. So taper along
shorter edge of gauge.

d) Corners of gauge are worn out.

e) Gauge surface is convex or concave.

Pitter–NPL Gauge Interferometer

•This interferometer is used for determining

actual lengths of slip gauges.

•Illuminator provides a concentrated light source

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•Light from a monochromatic source (the preferred light source is a
cadmium lamp) is condensed by a condensing lens and focused onto an
illuminating aperture.
•This provides a concentrated light source. Thus, a parallel beam of light
falls on a constant deviation prism.
•This prism splits the incident light into light rays of different wavelengths
and hence different colors. The user can select a desired color by varying the
angle of the reflecting faces of the prism relative to the plane of the base
•The optical flat can be positioned at a desired angle by means of a simple
arrangement. The slip gauge that is to be checked is kept right below the optical
flat on top of the highly flat surface of the base plate.
•The lower portion of the optical flat is coated with a film of aluminum, which
transmits and reflects equal proportions of the incident light.
•The light is reflected from three surfaces, namely the surface of the optical flat,
the upper surface of the slip gauge, and the surface of the base plate.
•Light rays reflected from all the three surfaces pass through the optical system
again; however, the axis is slightly deviated due to the inclination of the optical
flat. This slightly shifted light is captured by another prism, so that the fringe
Field of view of fringe pattern

It can be seen that the two sets

of fringes are displaced by an
amount a with respect to each
other. The value of a varies
depending on the color of the
incident light. The displacement
a is expressed as a spacing b,

fraction of the fringe

which is as follows:
f = a/b

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 LASERS in Metrology
Low power units.

Advantages of Laser
1) Light from lasers is coherent, intense.
2) Laser inspection systems have wide dynamic range, high
contrast.
3) It can assure 100 % quality products.
4) Due to it’s monochromatic nature , laser light can be easily
focussed and concentrated with a lens to a very small
diameter spot with much higher intensity.
5) In metrology laser consumes very less power.
6) Used where high precision and accuracy is required.
Applications of LASERS in Metrology
LDV(Laser Doppler Velocimeters):-
Laser Doppler principle – any light beam coming in contact with a moving
object experiences a shift in it’s frequency depending upon it’s velocity
Frequency of light scattered by object increases when object is
approaching and decreases when the object moves away. Velocimeter uses
differential Doppler technique for measuring velocity.
The meter uses a laser beam split into two beams of equal intensity
which are focussed and crossed at the point of measurement volume
causing interference fringes
LDV(Laser Doppler Velocimeters):-
Tiny particles in the measurement volume scatter light when they
cross the light fringes but no light is scattered when they cross the
dark fringe.
 Light scattered by moving object is collected by a lens and focused
on photo detector.
 Time taken by a particle to move from one fringe to other is used
to measure velocity of moving object. Velocity or length is displayed
Laser diameter gauge
1) Used to measure diameter of any type of opaque rod.
1

2) Instrument uses two parallel beam transmitter-

receiver pair kept facing each other around test
piece.
3) Laser beam emitted from transmitter is converted
into a parallel beam by a projecting lens.
4) This beam after passing through a slit on receiver is
focussed on a photo detector.
5) When a rod passes between transmitter-receiver
pair, light falling on receiver is reduced depending
upon diameter of rod.
6) Output of photo detector is calibrated to indicate
diameter of rod.
 1

1)A laser beam can be used to check profile of complex parts like
turbine blades by optical sectioning technique and CCTV.
2) The edge of test piece is sharply marked by two beams of laser lights.
It is then observed by a TV camera. TV camera observes a graticule via
a beam splitter as shown.
3) The magnified images of both test specimen and graticule are
displayed on TV monitor.
4) The position of graticule is so adjusted that two images are
superimposed over each other.
5) Any error in the profile of test specimen can be found out.
 Laser Scanning

1) Laser beam from source is deflected by a rotating mirror and focused to

sweep past the object to be examined.
2) A photo detector senses this beam and a signal processing microprocessor
unit converts signal for giving measurement.
3) Photo detector senses beam except when it is interrupted by object in it’s
path.
4) The period of time during which light beam gets interrupted is timed
accurately and related to size of object.
5) Microprocessor unit records time interval and converts them into linear
dimensions
 Laser Interferometers

LASER: Light amplification by stimulated emission of Radiation.

Laser interferometer utilize the principle of both the optical technique and digital
electronics.
It used A.C. laser as light source and thus unable the measurement to be made
over larger distances.
The equipment consist of 3 basic units:
1)Sensor unit S 2) Reflector Unit R 3) Control and Display unit T

A helium Neon Laser having wavelength 0.6328 microns is commonly used.

The sensor unit is fixed and houses the laser unit L, collimating lens A , beam
splitter –B, fixed mirrors D & E and the photoelectric cell F.
Beam from the laser gets divided into two parts at the beam splitter.
Laser Interferometers

•Laser interferometers can be

used for measurements of small
diameters as well as
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UNIT-2 displacements.
 Working:-
•Laser light first falls on the semi-reflector P, is partially reflected by
90° and falls on the other reflector S.
•A portion of light passes through P and strikes the corner cube. Light
is turned through 180° by the corner cube and recombines at the semi-
reflector S.
•If the difference between these two paths of light (PQRS − PS) is an
odd number of half wavelengths, then interference will occur at S and
the diode output will be at a minimum. On the other hand, if the path
difference is an even number of half wavelengths, then the
photodiodes will register maximum output.
Each time, the moving slide is displaced by a quarter wavelength,
the path difference (i.e., PQRS − PS) becomes half a wavelength
and the output from the photodiode
MQC : UNIT-2also changes from maximum