Lab 16 Materials

Lab 16 Plan of the Day
Lab 16: Mach-Zehnder Interferometer
Self-Assessment (note addition of more of/less of items)

Today and Wednesday we'll break into 2 groups. One group will build a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and the other will learn optics cleaning techniques. Then on Wednesday we'll switch. The interferometer build will take 1-2 hours.

Here's a pdf with optics cleaning instructions:
Meilse Griot cleaning instructions.
Because of the importance of minimizing damage to an optic's surface, cleaning is done very carefully. Many years of experience has developed a practical and safe approach. The key ingredient is patience and losing all desire to rush. A little practice helps too.

Lab 16 Prep

There is no separate prep package. Work on your projects. Be prepared to give status of work accomplished (not time spent, or work planned).
I have a pile of photos from Friday's open lab. Too many to email or upload. Instead I'll burn them to CDs and bring them to lab. I note, however, that with 5 dozen photos it is hard to keep track. My advice for future photo taking is that you write a little placard to appear in the frame when the photo is taken to identify it better.
I'll post up this one photo though. It was the highlight of the day when Sy's Mach-Zehnder interferometer gave fringes.

Lab 15 Materials

This post is the plan of the day.
1) Demonstrate preparedness
2) Quantum optics snippit - polarization tagging
3) One-on-one presentation topic & plan review
4) Open Lab w/ Michelson layout & polarizers

Lab 15 Prep

There is no separate prep package. Your preparation has 2 parts:
1) Write a paragraph (or more) describing your plan for the final presentation. Your plan should include a short technical description, an estimate of the amount of table time you will need, and a timeline for accomplishing the project. Refer to the presentation rules given during lab 12. Key dates are: presentation is evening of 12/7 and a hardcopy/digital version is due on the last day of class. I will spend about 10 minutes with each of you discussing your project during lab 15.
2) Review your lab notes for the last experiment, where we polarization tagged the arms of a Michelson interferometer. Generate a 1-page description of the experiment and the results. Make a note of something you would like to try differently or in addition. Write a simple procedure for doing that and incorporate it into your table work during the open lab.

Lab 14 Material Available

At the moment it is a draft, I'll do some reorganizing for class but this is the content:
Lab 14 Materials

Lab 14 Prep Package Available

Lab 14 Prep Package
...in which you will further explore the Michelson interferometer, including a quantum mechanical calculation of its fringe pattern.

Lab 13 Photos

Lab 13 was to build a Michelson interferometer and obtain first fringes. Both teams were successful, achieving fringes in an hour or less. Here are some photos.

Team A planning their buildup and alignments. The team came up with a perforated card as an alignment aid that was used to ensure the beam was a constant height above the table.

Team B doing their layout. Fringes obtained at t=1 hour using shimmed and hand-touch alignments. Not bad!