Michelson Interferometer - Graphical Summary

Amar Masalmeh and Donald Ng Jer Yi

Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
(Dated: April 15, 2016)

amasalme@sfu.ca

djng@sfu.ca

I.

INTRODUCTION

The Michelson Interferometer is a device used to study interference patterns in light

waves. This is done by splitting the incident light beam into two parts (reflected and
refracted) and recombining (using mirrors) into one beam. This process is known as interferometric recombination and illustrates the wave properties of light. The goal of this
experiment is to investigate some of these properties.
We have gathered data for the calculation of K (the ratio of micrometer to mirror movement), N a (the mean wavelength of Sodium), and (the separation between the Sodium
Doublet).
We have also collected data for the calculation of n (the refractive index of air) by creating
a vacuum in part of the path the light travels through.

II.

METHOD

We first began by using a Mercury vapour lamp to observe circular fringes. Then, by
rotating the micrometer, the mirror would move, causing fringes to expand or contract.
These quantities would be related to one another with the following equation:

2d = m

(1)

where = 546.07 nm for green Mercury vapour light, d is the mirror distance, and m is
the number of passing fringes.
We then replaced the Mercury vapour lamp with a Sodium lamp. Using the same technique and equation as with the Mercury vapour lamp, we calculated the mean wavelength
of Sodium light, N a .
We then observed that Sodium fringes became indistinguishable after the mirror has been
moved a certain distance. This was due to the beating signal between the two dominant
frequencies in Sodiums emission spectrum. We measured the average carriage distance
required to move through one full contrast cycle. This was related to the separation between
Sodiums dominant wavelengths by the following equation:

=
2

1 2
2d

(2)

where 1 and 2 are the two dominant wavelengths in the emission spectrum of Sodium.
The product 1 2 is the square geometric mean of these two wavelengths, and can be ap2

proximated by N a , the square arithmetic mean wavelength of Sodium light (mentioned

above).
Finally, we used a vacuum pump to evacuate a chamber (length 5 cm) of air. We expected
the optical path distance to change as pressure in the chamber changed. This minute change
was observed as fringe contractions of green Mercury light. The relevant quantities were
related by the following equation:

n=1+

III.

mp
2Lp

(3)

RESULTS

We calculated our K value to be 5.1 0.36. More accuracy would have been beneficial
in reducing the errors in all our other calculations. Nonetheless, this value seemed accurate
enough for our purposes.
We found our N a value to be equal to 588 0.4 nm. This is very close to the accepted
value of N a = 589.3 nm1 .
We found our value to be equal to 0.6 0.05 nm. This is very close to the accepted
value of = 0.60 nm1 .
Lastly, we found our n value to be equal to 1.00029 0.000006. This is extremely close
to the accepted value of n = 1.0002922 .

[1] Sodium Light Fringe Data - http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/Handbook/Tables/

sodiumtable2.htm.
[2] Sodium Light Fringe Data - http://www.kayelaby.npl.co.uk/general_physics/2_5/2_5_
7.html.