Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

Mach-Zehnder
Interferometer
Submitted by: Submitted to:
Amanpreet Priyanka
Dutta (CS A1) Tiwari Ma’am
Mach-Zehnder Interferometer
Topics:
• What is Interference?
• What is Interferometer?
• Types of Interferometers
• Mach-Zehnder Interferometer
• Set-Up
• Working
• Applications and Uses
What is Interference?
Interference is a natural phenomenon that happens at every place and
at every moment. Yet we don’t see interference patterns everywhere.
Interference is the phenomenon in which two waves superpose to form
the resultant wave of the lower, higher or same amplitude.
The most commonly seen interference is the optical interference
or light interference. This is because light waves are randomly
generated every which way by most sources. This means that light
waves coming out of a source do not have a constant amplitude,
frequency or phase.
Interference of light waves can be either constructive interference or
destructive interference.
• Constructive interference: Constructive interference takes place
when the crest of one wave falls on the crest of another wave such
that the amplitude is maximum. These waves will have the same
displacement and are in the same phase.
• Destructive interference: In destructive interference the crest of
one wave falls on the trough of another wave such that the
amplitude is minimum. The displacement and phase of these waves
are not the same.
What is an Interferometer?
• Interferometers are investigative tools used in
many fields of science and engineering. They
are called interferometers because they work
by merging two or more sources of light to
create an interference pattern, which can be
measured and analyzed; hence 'Interfere-o-
meter', or interferometer. The interference
patterns generated by interferometers contain
information about the object or phenomenon
being studied. They are often used to make
very small measurements that are not
achievable any other way.
Types of Interferometers:
• Mach–Zehnder
Interferometer
• Michelson Interferometer
• Fabry–Perot
Interferometer
 Sagnac Interferometer
 Common path
Interferometer
Mach–Zehnder interferometer
• The Mach–Zehnder interferometer was developed by the physicists Ludwig
Mach and Ludwig Zehnder.
• The Mach–Zehnder interferometer is a particularly simple device for
demonstrating interference by division of amplitude. A light beam is first split
into two parts by a beam splitter and then recombined by a second beam
splitter. Depending on the relative phase acquired by the beam along the two
paths the second beam splitter will reflect the beam with efficiency between 0
and 100%.
• As shown in Figure, it uses two separate beam splitters (BS) to split and
recombine the beams, and has two outputs, which can e.g. be sent to photo-
detectors.
• The optical path lengths in the two arms may be nearly identical (as in the
figure), or may be different (e.g. with an extra delay line).
• The distribution of optical powers at the two outputs depends on the precise
difference in optical arm lengths and on the wavelength (or optical
frequency).
• If the interferometer is well aligned, the path length difference can be
adjusted (e.g. by slightly moving one of the mirrors) so that for a particular
optical frequency the total power goes into one of the outputs.
• For misaligned beams (e.g. with one mirror being slightly tilted), there will be
some fringe patterns in both outputs, and variations of the path length
difference affect mainly the shapes of these interference patterns, whereas the
distribution of total powers on the outputs may not change very much.
Mach–Zehnder Interferometer Set Up
• A collimated beam is split by a half-silvered mirror (beam
splitters).
• The two resulting beams (the "sample beam" and the "reference
beam") are each reflected by a mirror.
• The two beams then pass a second half-silvered mirror and enter
two detectors.
Mach–Zehnder Interferometer: Working
• The "half-silvered" mirror is just a crummy mirror reflecting half the light incident on it,
refracting the other half through it. Such mirrors are sometimes called one way glass. Sometimes
we shall call it a beam splitter.
• The speed of light in glass is significantly less than c. For most glasses, the index of refraction is on
the order of 1.5 or so.
• When a light ray is incident on a surface and the material on the other side of the surface has a
higher index of refraction (i.e. a lower speed of light than the medium that the light is travelling in),
then the reflected light ray is shifted in its phase by exactly one half a wavelength.
• The index of refraction of a perfect mirror can be thought of as infinite. Thus light reflected by a
mirror has its phase changed by one half a wavelength.
• When a light ray is incident on a surface and the material on the other side of the surface has a
lower index of refraction, the reflected light ray does not have its phase changed.
• When a light ray goes from one medium into another, its direction changes due to refraction but no
phase change occurs at the surfaces of the two mediums.
• When a light ray travels through a medium, such as a glass plate, its phase will be shifted by an
amount that depends on the index of refraction of the medium and the path length of the light ray
through the medium.
• We consider the two paths for light arriving at detector 1.
• Path "U":
1. Reflected by the front of the first beam splitter, giving a phase change
of one-half a wavelength.
2. Reflected by the upper-left mirror, giving a further phase change of
one-half a wavelength.
3. Transmitted through the upper-right beam splitter, giving some
constant phase change.
• Path "D":
1. Transmitted through the lower-left beam splitter, giving some constant
phase change.
2. Reflected by the front of the lower-right mirror, giving a phase change
3. Reflected by the front of the second beam splitter, giving a phase change
• Now we consider light entering detector 2:
• Path "U":
1.Reflected by the front of the first beam splitter, giving a phase change of one-half a
wavelength.
2. Reflected by the upper-left mirror, giving a further phase change of one-half a
wavelength.
3. Transmitted through the second beam splitter, giving some constant phase change.
4. Reflected by the inner surface of the second beam splitter, giving no phase change.
5. Transmitted through the beam splitter a second time, giving an additional constant
phase change.
Path "D":
1.Transmitted through the lower-left beam splitter, giving some constant phase change.
2. Reflected by the front of the lower-right mirror, giving a phase change of one-half a
wavelength.
3. Transmitted through the second beam splitter, giving some constant phase change.
• Adding up all the contributions for the two paths, we see that they
are the same. Thus light entering detector 1 via the two paths is in
phase. Thus we get constructive interference for the light entering
detector 1.
• Adding up all these, we see that the total difference between the
two paths is that the U path has gone through one additional phase
change of one-half a wavelength. Therefore, there will be complete
destructive interference, and no light will reach detector 2.
Mach–Zehnder Interferometer:
Application and Uses:
The versatility of the Mach–Zehnder configuration

has led to its being used in a wide range of
fundamental research topics in quantum mechanics,
including studies on counterfactual definiteness,
quantum entanglement, quantum computation,
quantum cryptography, quantum logic, Elitzur–
Vaidman bomb tester, the
quantum eraser experiment, the
quantum Zeno effect, and neutron diffraction. In
optical telecommunications it is used as an
electro-optic modulator for phase and amplitude
modulation of light.

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Mach-Zehnder

The versatility of the Mach–Zehnder configuration

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