Abstract

It is shown that it is possible in practice to carry out multiple successive two-beam interference of light on a semitransparent metallic layer. Semitransparent layers made from certain metals give interference fringes of equal slope that are virtually coincident in phase on the two images of the source in a two-beam interferometer. This makes it possible to again superimpose the output beams on such a layer. A semitransparent chromium layer and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with additional superpositions of the beams were used for this work. Patterns of the superposition of several systems of contrast interference fringes and the results of photometry are presented. The possibility of creating wide-angle stages for a narrow-band optical filter is discussed as the first use of this form of interference.

Analytic solution for the three-layer multiple beam interferometer

Roger G. Horn and Douglas T. Smith
Appl. Opt. 30(1) 59-65 (1991)

Two-Beam Interference with Partially Coherent Light

B. J. Thompson and E. Wolf
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 47(10) 895-902 (1957)

Multiple-Beam Interference with Partially Coherent Light*

Brian J. Thompson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 56(9) 1157-1161 (1966)

Coherent two-beam interference fringe projection for highspeed three-dimensional shape measurements

Martin Schaffer, Marcus Große, Bastian Harendt, and Richard Kowarschik
Appl. Opt. 52(11) 2306-2311 (2013)

Holographic Two-Beam Interferometry Using Multiple-Reflected Light Beams

T. Tsuruta and Y. Itoh
Appl. Opt. 8(10) 2033-2036 (1969)