INSTRUCTION MANUAL MICHELSON INTERFEROMETER

INSTRUCTION MANUAL
MICHELSON INTERFEROMETER Procedure for adjustment of the Michelson Interferometer:1. Adjust the position of the movable mirror by using the coarse adjustment so that the adjustable mirror and the fixed mirrors are approximately equidistance from the beam splitter. 2. Place a sodium lamp at left hand side of the interferometer at a distance of approximately 50cm. Lamp should be approximately in line with the center of the beam splitter and fixed mirror. Place a ground glass plate (size: 52mm dia) between lamp and interferometer. 3. In front of ground glass plate, place an opaque screen thickness 3mm, dia 52mm with a 1 mm dia. hole pierced in the screen. The pinhole should be approximately in line with the centers of the beam splitter and the fixed mirror. 4. See that fine tilt screw of the fixed mirror are placed in the half way position of their full travel. Place the eye close to beam splitter. Two virtual image of the pinhole will be seen. 5. Adjust the coarse tilt adjustment screw of the fixed mirror so that the two virtual images nearly coincide. For this adjustment, it may be necessary to adjust the tilt also of the movable mirror. 6. Use the fine tilt adjustment of the fixed mirror to make the two virtual images of the pinhole coincide exactly. 7. On removal of opaque screen interference fringes will be seen but fringes may not be circular. Again use the fine tilt adjustment of the fixed mirror till the circular fringes centered in the field of view are seen. 8. Adjust the position of the movable mirror to get about 10 good contrast fringes, centered in the field of view. 9. Place the telescope focused to infinity for about 10 cm away from beam splitter. 10. The short focal length telescope is attached with Michaelson Interferometer. 11. The telescope points toward the movable mirror. The fringes will be seen through telescope. The center of the fringes seen through the telescope should not shift laterally if the movable mirror is displaced either by means of the fine or coarse adjustment drum. If this condition is not attained, repeat the steps 6, 7 & 8 till this condition is achieved. NOTE: - Large drum in front of the interferometer is for coarse displacement of the mirror. One turn of this drum displaces the mirror by 1 millimeter. Fine adjustment drum is at right hand side. One turn of this drum displaces the mirror by 0.01 mm. Graduations at the side of the guide-way give the displacement to the nearest 1 mm. Graduation seen through the window in front of the interferometer gives reading 0.01mm. The graduation on the fine adjustment drum (slow motion drum) gives up to 0.0001mm.

One rotation of large drum corresponds to 1mm. displacement of movable mirror. i.e. 100 division of graduated disc (seen through window) corresponds to 1mm. 1 division of graduated disc = 1/100mm. 100 division of slow motion drum (i.e. 1 full rotation = 1 division of graduated disc). Hence, 1 division of slow motion drum = 1/100 of graduated disc. = 1/10,000 mm i.e. least count of instrument = 10-4 mm. In an experimental following data was obtained. Least count of the slow motion drum = 10-4 mm S.NO. NO. OF FRINGES SHIFTED READING OF DRUM IN DIVISION ALONGWITH NUMBER OF ROTATION INITIAL 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 30 60 88 119 148 177 207 238 267 298 FINAL 60 88 119 148 177 207 238 267 298 326 TOTAL 30 28 31 29 29 30 31 29 31 28 296 DISTANCE MOVED IN DIV.

Movable mirror moved for 100 fringes = 296 division, i.e., 29.6 m Mirror moved per fringe = 0.296 m, i.e., /2 = 0.296 NOTE: The slow motion drum should be moved in one direction during one set of readings. RESULT: Observed wavelength of sodium light = 0.592 m Actual wavelength of sodium light = 0.593 m FOR CALCULATING THE THICKNESS OF MICA-SHEET, WHITE LIGHT SOURCE IS USED INSTEAD OF MONOCHROMATIC SOURCE OF LIGHT. For this, ray should travel equip-distance from movable mirror as well as stationery mirror, i.e., white light fringes should be obtained. In that case, one will get dark fringe followed by colored fringe on either side.

To get thickness of mica sheet, it is introduced in the path of movable mirror. As the optical distance is increased hence slow drum is moved in anti-clockwise direction, i.e., in such a way that the movable mirror moves toward the observer till one gets white light fringes again. Thickness of mica-sheet = ( - 1) d Where = refractive index of mica d = distance moved by the movable mirror

Specification of Optical Part:

Beam Splitter, Compensator Size 50 35 8 mm Material: Optical Glass (BK-7) Optical finish both sides: /10 & parallelism upto 5 seconds. Beam Splitter, Coating Mat: AI+SIO; R/T ratio: 50/50 5%

Front Surface Coated Mirrors

Mirror dia. 26 mm, thickness 10 mm, optical coating material aluminium with protective, layer Tolerance in R/T: 5% Surface flatness /10. Material: Optical Glass (BK-7)