Interferometry

Interferometry is a family of techniques in which waves, usually electromagnetic waves, are superimposed, causing the phenomenon of interference, which is used to extract information. Interferometry is an important investigative technique in the fields of astronomy, fiber optics, engineering metrology, optical metrology, oceanography, seismology, spectroscopy (and its applications to chemistry), quantum mechanics, nuclear and particle physics, plasma physics, remote sensing, biomolecular interactions, surface profiling, microfluidics, mechanical stress/strain measurement, velocimetry, optometry, and making holograms.

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫

Interferometers are widely used in science and industry for the measurement of small displacements, refractive index changes and surface irregularities. In most interferometers, light from a single source is split into two beams that travel in different optical paths, which are then combined again to produce interference; however, under some circumstances, two incoherent sources can also be made to interfere. The resulting interference fringes give information about the difference in optical path lengths. In analytical science, interferometers are used to measure lengths and the shape of optical components with nanometer precision; they are the highest precision length measuring instruments in existence. In Fourier transform spectroscopy they are used to analyze light containing features of absorption or emission associated with a substance or mixture. An astronomical interferometer consists of two or more separate telescopes that combine their signals, offering a resolution equivalent to that of a telescope of diameter equal to the largest separation between its individual elements.

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

•Air-wedge shearing interferometer

•Astronomical interferometer / Michelson stellar interferometer

•Classical interference microscopy

•Common path - Bath

•Cyclic interferometer

•Diffraction-grating interferometer (white light)

•Double-slit interferometer

•Dual-polarization interferometry

•Fabry–Pérot interferometer

•Fizeau interferometer

•Fourier-transform interferometer

•Fresnel interferometer (e.g. Fresnel biprism, •Fresnel mirror or Lloyd's mirror)

•Fringes of Equal Chromatic Order interferometer (FECO)

•Gabor hologram

•Gires–Tournois etalon

•Heterodyne interferometer (see heterodyne)

•Holographic interferometer

•Jamin interferometer

•Laser Doppler vibrometer

•Linnik interferometer (microscopy)

•LUPI variant of Michelson

•Lummer–Gehrcke interferometer

•Mach–Zehnder interferometer

•Martin–Puplett interferometer

•Michelson interferometer

•Mirau interferometer (also known as a Mirau objective) (microscopy)

•Moiré interferometer (see moiré pattern)

•Multi-beam interferometer (microscopy)

•Near-field interferometer

•Newton interferometer (see Newton's rings)

•Nomarski interferometer

•Nonlinear Michelson interferometer / Step-phase •Michelson interferometer

•N-slit interferometer

•Phase-shifting interferometer

•Planar lightwave circuit interferometer (PLC)

•Photon Doppler velocimeter interferometer (PDV)

•Polarization interferometer (see also Babinet–Soleil compensator)

•Point diffraction interferometer

•Rayleigh interferometer

•Sagnac interferometer

•Schlieren interferometer (phase-shifting)

•Shearing interferometer (lateral and radial)

•Twyman–Green interferometer

•Talbot–Lau interferometer

•Watson interferometer (microscopy)

•White-light interferometer (see also Optical coherence tomography)

•White-light scatterplate interferometer (white-light) (microscopy)

•Young's double-slit interferometer

•Zernike phase-contrast microscopy

     

  𝑷𝒊𝒄 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒂 𝑴𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓.