Question about Michelson-Morley interferometer

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SUMMARY

The Michelson-Morley interferometer requires the two arms to be equal in length for interference fringes to appear. The tolerance for arm length discrepancies is determined by the coherence length of the light used in the experiment. This coherence length defines the spatial longitudinal extent of the wave packets, which directly influences the visibility of the interference pattern. Understanding these parameters is crucial for accurate measurements in interferometry.

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Physicists, optical engineers, and students studying wave optics and interferometry will benefit from this discussion.

exmarine
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Must the two arms of a MM interferometer be equal for fringes to appear? What is the tolerance on that? Would that give the length of the wave packets?
 
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exmarine said:
What is the tolerance on that? Would that give the length of the wave packets?
The tolerance is given by the spatial longitudinal extent of the wavepacket.
 
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