An alternative light path analysis in Michelson’s interferometer experiment

Kikyo Toshima, Tetsuo Harimoto

Andrzej Zardecki, Claude A. Delisle

Recent experiments of Delisle and Brochu, in which spectral modulation at a large path difference was observed, are analyzed in quantum mechanical terms. Starting with a stationary density operator for thermal light, a two beam superposition such as taking place in a Michelson interferometer, is investigated. It is shown that a simple interference law holds separately for each mode of radiation. Consequently, a coherent superposition of light should be observed for a time delay arbitrarily large compared to the coherence time. The latter determines merely the range of intensity modulation. Analysis of the Michelson interferometer accounting for the energy returned to the source is also presented.

Gilbert Newton Lewis

Derek N. Stacey

The author demonstrates a relationship between the pattern of straight interference fringes formed in Young's experiment and the circular fringes produced at infinity by a Michelson interferometer. The two patterns can both be considered to be produced by the interference of light from two coherent point sources. It is shown that the pattern given by these sources on a large sphere centred midway between them reduces to Young's fringes in the vicinity of zero path difference and to the Michelson pattern in the vicinity of maximum path difference.

Lajos Jánossy, Zs. Náray

Andreas Zmija, Peter Deiml, A. Zink +7 more