Lab 12 Materials - Michelson Interferometer First Fringes

Lab 12 Prep Package (pdf file)

Lab 12 Briefing (pdf file)

It's a happy circumstance that today's easily available optical components and mounts allow the construction of various interferometers on the optical table.  It means we can have a lot of fun with quantum optics by being hands-on, and in doing so gain good physical insight.  In this lab we start our sweep through the final theme of the class where we'll bring all of the ideas together into sophisticated probing of the quantum state of light in interferometers, fringe formation, and illustrations of the which-way ambiguity.

For prep you will read Michelson and Morley's original paper, explore some new interferometer concepts and get concrete about carrying out the alignments necessary to get an interferometer to work.