Spectroscopic Interferometry and Laser-Excitation Spectroscopy

Abstract

The underlying Michelson-Morley experiment [12.1] was made possible in an interferometer designed by Michelson for atomic spectroscopy in his attempt to establish a new meter standard using a suitably narrow spectral line, the red-line singlet not doublet of cadmium, via measuring visibility of a resultant two-beam interference pattern (see Chap. 3): ${\text{V}} = \left( {{\text{I}}_{\hbox{max} } {-}{\text{I}}_{\hbox{min} } } \right)/\left( {{\text{I}}_{\hbox{max} } + {\text{I}}_{\hbox{min} } } \right)$.