B.Sc.

Sem IV OPTICS Notes

Michelson’s Interferometer
Principle
The amplitude of the light beam from an extended source is divided into two parts of equal
intensities by partial reflection and refraction. These beams are sent in two directions at right angles
and are brought together after reflection from plane mirrors to produce interference fringes.

Construction
The main optical parts consist of two highly polished front silvered plane mirrors M 1 and M2 and
two plane parallel glass plates G1 and G2 of same thickness. The plate G1 is half silvered at the back
so that the incident beam is divided into a reflected and a transmitted beam of equal intensity. The
plates G1 and G2 are held parallel to
each other and are inclined at an
angle of 450 to the mirrors M1 and
M2 which are mutually
perpendicular to each other. The
mirror M2 is fixed while mirror M1
can be moved exactly parallel to
itself. The interference bands are
observed in the field of view of the
telescope T.

Working
Light from the source S is rendered
parallel by means of a collimating
lens L and is made to fall on the
glass plate G1. It is partly reflected at
the back surface of G1 along AC and
partly transmitted along AB. The ray
AC is received by the plane mirror
M1 normally, so that it is reflected
along the same path and emerges out along AT. The transmitted ray AB is received by the mirror M 2
normally, reflected along the same path and then moves along AT after reflection at the back surface
of G1. Thus two beams along AT are produced from a single source by division of the amplitude.
These two beams produce interference under suitable conditions. The ray starting from the source
and suffering reflection at the mirror M1 traverses the glass plate G1 thrice, whereas the ray reflected
from the mirror M2 traverses the glass plate G1 only once. To compensate for this an exactly similar
glass plate G2 is introdued in the path AB parallel to the glass plate G1.

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