• 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 & result will be
• If two rays having same
amplitude are out of phase,
then resultant will be &
result will be
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
NPL Flatness Interferometer
The NPL flatness interferometer is used
for checking flatness between gauge
surfaces.
(a) Equal fringes on (b) Unequal fringes
parallel due to flatness error
• 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.
• On the other hand, in Fig. (b), the number of fringes is unequal
and, since the base plate surface is ensured to be perfectly flat, the
work piece surface has a flatness error.
Pitter– NPL Gauge Interferometer
• This interferometer is used for
determining actual lengths of slip gauges.
• Illuminator provides a concentrated light sourc
Working:-
• 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
plate.
• The prism turns the light by 90° and directs it onto the optical flat.
• 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
Field of view of fringe pattern
It can be seen that the two sets
of fringes are displaced by an
amount
Laser Interferometers
•
• 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 also changes from maximum to
minimum or vice versa.
