Fabry-Perot Interferometer

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
Level 1 Laboratory: General Physics Experiment

FABRY-PEROT INTERFEROMETER

AIMS

1.1

Physics

In this experiment you will use a red He-Ne (helium-neon) laser to set up and calibrate a
Fabry-Perot interferometer. Using the calibration you will then determine the wavelength of
the green line of the mercury vapour spectrum and the wavelength separation of the sodium D
lines. You will also determine the spacing between the mirrors. A detailed error analysis of
your data is required.

1.2

Skills

The particular skills you will start to acquire by performing this experiment are:

Careful and systematic alignment of an optical system.

Data collection and error analysis.

Graphing and linear least squares data analysis.

Updated Jan 2010 by Dr R A Bacon

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Fabry-Perot Interferometer

INTRODUCTION

The interferometer consists of two accurately flat glass plates, semi-silvered on their inner
surfaces and mounted parallel to one another (see Fig. 1). This arrangement is called an
etalon. The distance d between the plates can be varied continuously, while keeping the
surfaces parallel, by means of a precision micrometer acting through a lever. When light is
incident upon the interferometer, sharp fringes are formed by the mutual interference of the
directly transmitted beam with beams that have suffered a number of reflections at the
silvered surfaces.
Semi-Reflecting
Surface

d
Fixed Movable
Mirror Mirror

Figure 1:

Fabry-Perot etalon showing multiple reflection between semi-reflecting mirrors a distance d

apart.

This type of instrument is therefore referred to as a multiple beam interferometer in contrast

to the Michelson interferometer which is a two-beam interferometer. A comparison of the
two types of fringes produced is shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 2:

Comparison of (a) the fringes obtained from the Michelson and (b) the much sharper fringes in
a Fabry-Perot interferometer for mirror surfaces with a reflectance (or reflectivity) of R = 80%.

The Fabry-Perot interferometer is used for precision measurement of the wavelength of light
and for investigation of the fine structure of a spectrum. The basic property that distinguishes
the Fabry-Perot from other spectroscopic devices is that, for a given resolving power, it is the
most luminous instrument available[1].

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Fabry-Perot Interferometer

THEORY

Consider a Fabry-Perot interferometer where light of wavelength is incident on the parallel

plates and is reflected many times by the semi-reflecting surfaces. However, light will only
be transmitted across to the other side when all the multiply-reflected waves arrive together in
phase i.e. when the path difference between them is an integral number of wavelengths.

Detail of
Fabry-Perot mirrors.

Figure 3:
ray path between

Consider two adjacent transmitted beams in Fig. 3 above (i.e. only two-beam interference) :
the path difference between these is given by :
= ( AB + BC ) AD

(1)

Simple trigonometry then yields :

= 2d cos

(2)

(Notice that Equ. (2) indicates that, for a fixed d, the path difference is a maximum when
= 0o.) Constructive interference occurs between two given beams whenever their path
difference is an integer multiple of : i.e. = N , where N is an integer.
Thus, the condition for bright fringes (constructive interference) for the beams in Fig. 3 is :
2 d cos = N

(3)

If light is arriving on the plates from many different directions (i.e. the light source is diffuse
rather than collimated as implied in Fig. 3) then, for such a given , a circle of bright light
(i.e. subtending the same ) will be observed, corresponding to all the possible beams that
constructively interfere with a path difference of N. The next innermost (say) circular fringe
will correspond to a smaller for which the path difference is (N+1). see also Fig. 6.
For a two-beam interferometer, such as a Michelson instrument, one can then show that the
intensity I of the fringes varies with the phase (where = 2/ = 4 dcos / ) as :

I = I 0 cos 2
2

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(4)

Fabry-Perot Interferometer

When multiple interfering beams are involved (i.e. where we consider all possible multiplyreflected emerging beams at a given angle to the right in Fig. 3, not just the bottom two), the
fringes observed obey similar rules to those above, but become very much sharper. Then, for
the Fabry-Perot multiple-beam interference, the intensity varies with as :
I=

I0

1 + 4 R /(1 R) 2 sin 2 ( / 2 )

(5)

where R is the reflectivity of the interferometer plates.

Figure 4 shows Equ. (5) plotted for different values of R. Notice that increasing R makes the
fringes get much sharper (i.e. the resolving power of the instrument increases).

Figure 4:

Normalised intensity in a Fabry-Perot as a function of the phase , for increasing R from 0.04
to 0.95. The phase = 4d cos /. p is an integer.

The phase parameter (= 4d cos /) is essentially a measure of the angle , so each

successive peak in Fig. 4 represents the intensity of a circular fringe or ring at a given
corresponding . Note that increasing represents decreasing angular size. The peaks are
regularly spaced on the -axis in Fig. 4, but in the actual field of view, because of the
cos term in , the rings actually bunch up as their angular size increases, as shown in Fig.
2. Further details can be found elsewhere.[2-4]
Note that Fig. 4 is for a monochromatic (single ) light source. Suppose now two separate
wavelengths are shone into the Fabry-Perot : two sets of separate fringes will appear on Fig.4
displaced relative to one another along the horizontal axis. If the mirrors have high enough
reflectance surfaces, these fringes will be very sharp and one set can easily be distinguished
from the other : the Fabry-Perot then allows one to resolve the separation of the two very
close wavelengths via their distinct, and sharp, sets of fringes. You will exploit this powerful
advantage of the Fabry-Perot in the final experiment to determine the wavelength separation
of the two very close lines of the yellow sodium doublet.

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Fabry-Perot Interferometer

SETTING UP THE INTERFEROMETER & PARALLELING

THE PLATES

You must take great care in this section, if you are to get good results later on.
To function correctly, the plates of the interferometer must be rendered parallel to a high
degree of accuracy. Here, you will do this initial setting up. If you return to the
interferometer after others have been using it, you must recheck that the plates are parallel
before carrying on with further measurements.

L
Fixed Mirror (tilt adjust)

Movable Mirror (via micrometer)

He-Ne Laser
Microscope
objective
lens

d
Fabry-Perot
Interferometer

Figure 5:

Card or Ground
Glass Screen

Schematic diagram of laser illumination of the interferometer. r is the radius of the circular fringes

Put an aperture in the front mount (either an iris or a hole in a piece of white card in
the flat sprung holder). The aperture should be aligned as closely as possible with the
centre line of the etalon, both vertically and horizontally.

Do not look directly into the laser or into any reflected laser beams.
Ensure any reflected beams do not leave the experimental area.

Use the position indicator (the mounted Perspex rod) and line it up with the aperture If
you are using the iris, be particularly careful how you do this. Then set up the Heliumneon laser at the far end of the optical bench with its aperture at the same height and
horizontal position as the iris or card aperture, and with the principle beam centred on
the iris or card aperture. The laser beam should be parallel to the optical bench.

Place a piece of matt black paper between the two etalon mirrors, and adjust the
alignment of the moveable mirror so that the reflected beam a) passes through the card
or iris aperture, and b) is centred on the laser aperture. Do not adjust the screw with
the red dot on it, but use the horizontal-only and the vertical-only screws.

Remove the piece of black paper and adjust the angle of the fixed mirror in a similar
way until the beam reflected by it is also centred on the laser aperture. The mirrors
will now be parallel within a wavelength or two.

Place a card in the holder behind the interferometer and remove the iris or card
aperture from the front. The beam should hit the card quite close to the centre of the
hole in the plate that supports the card. If it does not, then your original positioning of
the aperture or the original alignment of the laser was probably faulty (e.g. it was not
set parallel to the optical bench axis). If it is a long way from the centre then start
again, consulting with a demonstrator about how to improve the alignment.

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Fabry-Perot Interferometer

EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENTS

5.1

Calibrating the Micrometer Scale Determining the demagnification

factor M.

Examine the construction of the interferometer : the micrometer presses on the end of a long
spring-loaded lever connected to the movable mirror. Turning the micrometer causes the
mirror to move, and so change the d spacing of the mirror plates, but by a much smaller
amount. The ratio of these relative movements is called the interferometer demagnification
factor M. In this experiment, you will determine a value for M. It is important to get an
accurate value for M as it is crucial in the subsequent experiments to measure wavelengths.
Equation (3) states that 2d cos = N. Consider observing two fringes: one at the centre at
= 0 such that 2d = N0, say, and the very next one out, with 2d cos1 = (N0-1) (see Fig. 6
below). If we now decrease d, the angle subtended by the second fringe 1 must also
decrease, in order to keep both sides of Equ. (3) balanced. In other words, the second fringe
will collapse towards the centre (the opposite will happen if we increase d). The other fringes
will also shrink. Continuing to decrease d to some new value d will eventually cause the
second fringe to become the new central fringe, while the original central one has vanished.
Since the original central fringe had 2d = N0 and the new one has 2d = (N0-1), then the
mirror has moved by a total amount d - d = N0/2 - (N0-1)/2 = /2. Each time any fringe
just collapses into, or pops out of, the centre, the mirror spacing will have changed by /2.
N0 -3
N0 -2

N0 -1

1 2

Figure 6:

Order of
Interference
Rings

N0

Schematic of the formation of circular interference fringes. N0 is the order of the central fringe

As shown in Fig. 5, mount the microscope objective lens at about 50cm from the
interferometer, and align it so that the laser light is spread out evenly and centrally on to
the Fabry-Perot plates. A pattern of sharp circular rings should now be seen on the card.
If the rings are not quite centred in the field of view, you can make small adjustments to
the two tilt knobs on the fixed mirror mount to centralise the ring pattern.

Turn the micrometer so that the rings collapse into, or to expand out from, the centre. As
explained above, for every successive ring, the corresponding mirror movement is /2,
where for the He-Ne laser is 633nm.

Count the fringes as they expand or contract and record the micrometer reading for every
10 fringes. Plot a graph to relate change in plate separation to the micrometer reading
(given that every 10 fringes corresponds to a mirror movement of 5). The slope of the
best-fit straight line determines the demagnification factor M of the lever arm.

From now on, when you note a movement x, say, of the micrometer reading, you will assume
that the mirror moves by a smaller amount x/M.
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Fabry-Perot Interferometer

Measurement of the Plate Separation d

5.2

Theory shows [2-4] that the fringe pattern consists of circles of angular radius, , measured
from where the laser light diverges (see Figs. 5 and 6), given by Equ. (3) repeated here as :
2 d cos = N

(6)

where the nth ring from the centre has a radius r, and N = N0 - n, where N0 is the order number
of the central fringe.
Since is small then r/L, where L is the distance between screen and focal point of the
diverging microscope lens (see Fig. 5). Furthermore :
cos 1

2
2

(7)

Combining these equations gives :

r2
2d 1 2 = ( N 0 n )
2L

(8)

from which it is straightforward to show that :

2

r =

L2

n + L2 2 0
d
d

(9)

Replace the card by a ground glass screen and make sure you observe a good set of
concentric, centralised, circular rings from the laser.

You are supplied with a travelling microscope. Focus this onto the screen. By
scanning the microscope across the fringes and reading its appropriate Vernier scale,
measure the radius r of at least four rings. Note the fringe number n of each fringe,
relative to the central fringe.

Give special consideration as to how you measure r is it better to try to measure out
from the centre, or to measure, say, both the left and right positions of a given fringe?
Given that the fringes have finite thickness, how can you account for this in your
uncertainty for r?

Plot r2 against n and measure the gradient of the best-fit straight line, which, from
Equ. (9), will have a value of L2/d.

Given the wavelength of the He-Ne laser line and the length L (see Fig. 5) determine
d, the spacing of the mirrors. How can you check that your result for d is sensible?

Now, using Equ. (6), estimate the order N0 of the central fringe (i.e. with = 0) for
this particular d-spacing of the mirrors.
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Fabry-Perot Interferometer

5.3

Measurement of the Wavelength of Mercury Green Light Hg

In this experiment you will exploit the high accuracy of the Fabry-Perot to measure
the wavelength Hg of the prominent green line in the emission spectrum of mercury
(Hg). You will do this by measuring how far you need to move the micrometer in
order to cause the fringe pattern to collapse or expand by a given number of fringes.

Telescope
Green
Filter

Figure 7:

Lens
Mercury
Lamp

Schematic of the set up with the mercury vapour lamp.

Switch off the laser and replace the ground glass screen by the supplied green
filter (this is to filter out the green line from the other lines in the mercury vapour
spectrum). Focus the mercury lamp source, by means of a convex lens, on to the
rear side of the interferometer. Fit the interferometer telescope into the holder on
the laser side and focus it to view the resulting green circular interference rings
see Fig. 7 above. If you cannot see clear rings, you may need to adjust the lamp
and lens position, to get an even and bright spread of illumination over the mirror
surface. Sometimes it helps to do this first, while looking from the left in Fig. 7,
but with the telescope removed.

Once you have a clear image of the rings, count the fringes collapsing or
expanding when operating the micrometer, and plot the micrometer reading
against relative fringe number n. Obtain the best-fit gradient of your line.

Now, remembering that the micrometer movement is M times larger than the
mirror movement, and counting n fringes corresponds to a mirror movement of
n/2, calculate the wavelength of the green spectral line of mercury Hg. Compare
your result to the accepted value (see data at end of script).

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Fabry-Perot Interferometer

5.4

Determination the Wavelength Separation of the Sodium D lines Na

The well known bright yellow sodium (Na) emission spectrum actually consists of two very
closely-spaced lines call a doublet with wavelengths 1 and 2 = 1+Na , say. The
resolving power of the Fabry-Perot is sufficient to be able to see the two separate sets of
yellow rings from either of these two wavelengths (the other emission lines in the sodium
spectrum are too weak to be seen).
This experiment uses the Method of Coincidences, described in Appendix A, to determine
the wavelength separation Na of the sodium doublet. Read this Appendix now.

Remove the green filter and, leaving all else unchanged, replace the mercury lamp by the
sodium vapour lamp. Screw the micrometer in to read approximately zero. Two
concentric sets of circular fringes should be seen. This may be made clearer if you use a
small aperture (an iris) in front of the sodium lamp. You may need to make small
adjustments to the micrometer to improve the visibility of the distinct ring sets.

As you screw the micrometer out (anti-clockwise), the plate separation d increases and both
sets of rings will expand outwards from the centre, but after several hundred fringes pass it
will be seen that both ring systems merge together, one set having caught up with the other.
Further movement of the interferometer plates causes the fringes to separate again and then to
coincide once more, the cycle repeating continuously thereafter. The experiment consists in
observing as many coincidences as possible and recording the corresponding plate separation
(via the micrometer reading and instrument demagnification factor M ).
In practice it is hard to judge the condition for coincidence. It is recommended that
micrometer readings be taken when the two ring sets first appear to coalesce and again when
they just appear to separate, the mean being taken as the reading for coincidence. Take
account of this uncertainty in your results.

Plot the coincidence micrometer readings against the order number of coincidence. From
the gradient of the best-fit straight line obtain a mean value of the change in plate
separation, d , for one cycle. Dont forget that the changes in the micrometer readings
are M times larger than the actual mirror movements d.

The theory given in Appendix A shows that if the two close wavelengths are 1 and
1+Na then :

Na =

1 2
2 d

(9)

From this formula, find the separation of the sodium doublet, Na , assuming that
1 = 589.59nm. Check your result against the accepted value. (see data at end of script)

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Fabry-Perot Interferometer

APPENDIX A: METHOD OF COINCIDENCES

Let the wavelengths of the sodium D1 and D2 lines be 1 and 2 (with 2 = 1 + ). Suppose
that both fringe sets are superimposed at some plate separation d1, say. Then, let the orders of
interference at the centre of the fringe system be m for the D1 line, and n for the D2 line.
Therefore, from Equ. (3), we will have :
2d1 = m1 = n2

(A1)

Suppose now we increase the plate separation such that the fringes split and then re-coincide
again. Let the new plate separation be d2 (with d2 = d1 + d) and the order of the central D1
fringe be (m + p). The order for the central D2 fringe will be (n + p + 1), since in going from
one coincidence to the next, p fringes of D1 and (p + 1) fringes of D2 will have passed. Now
we have :

2d 2 = (m + p)1 = (n + p + 1)2

(A2)

Rearranging equations (A1) and (A2) gives

1 2 =

1
p +1

(A3)

and

2(d 2 d1 ) = p1

(A4)

Combining these, and using 2 = 1 + and d2 = d1 + d , gives,

=
1+

2d

(A5)

The unity in the denominator can be neglected in comparison with 2d/1 so to a good
approximation the separation of the two lines is given by :

1 2
2 d

(A6)

where d is the mirror movement between successive coincidences of the two sets of rings.
6.

REFERENCES
1)
2)
3)
4)

7.

G. Hernandez, Fabry-Perot Interferometers, (Cambridge University Press, 1986)

R.S. Longhurst, Geometrical and Physical Optics, Ch. 9
F.A. Jenkins and H.E. White, Fundamentals of Optics, (McGraw-Hill, 1976)
R. Guenther, Modern Optics, (John Wiley & Sons, 1990) p. 102

DATA

HeNe = 632.8 nm; Hg = 546.07 nm ; 1 Na = 589.59 nm ; Na = 5.97

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