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Theory of Lloyd’s Mirror Interferometer

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Theory of Lloyd’s Mirror Interferometer

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There are two principal methods for producing coherent sources for interferometry. One uses the division of wavefront, as in the Young’s double slit experiment. The second divides the amplitude between two arms, as in the Michelson interferometer. The Lloyd’s Mirror approach uses wavefront division at a mirror to produce two-source interference patterns.A source, S, emits coherent light into a cone such that some of the light follows a path that goes directly to the target while light emitted at a higher angle reflects from the mirror and upon reflection also goes to the target. The light reflected from the mirror then appears to have come from a virtual source, S’. When the light from the two paths is in phase a bright fringe appears and when the light is out of phase a dark fringe appears at the target.

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