Principle

With the aid of two mirrors in a Michelson arrangement, light is brought to interference. While moving one of the mirrors, the alterationin the interference pattern is observed and the wave length of the laser light determined.

Benefits


Learn about the measurement principle with which gravitational waves can be observed

Assemble your own interferometer using invidual optical components

Find out that even lasers have limited coherence length


Tasks


Construction of a Michelson interferometer using separate components.

The interferometer is used to determine the wavelength of the laser light.

The contrast function K is qualitatively recorded in order to determine the coherence length with it.


What you can learn about


Interference

Wavelength

Diffraction index

Speed of light

Phase

Virtual light source