Haidinger fringes are
interference fringe
In physics, interference is a phenomenon in which two waves combine by adding their displacement together at every single point in space and time, to form a resultant wave of greater, lower, or the same amplitude. Constructive and destructive ...
s formed by the
interference
Interference is the act of interfering, invading, or poaching. Interference may also refer to:
Communications
* Interference (communication), anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a message
* Adjacent-channel interference, caused by extr ...
of
monochromatic and
coherent light to form visible dark and bright fringes. Fringe localization is the region of space where fringes with reasonably good
contrast are observed.
Haidinger fringes are fringes localized at
infinity. Also known as fringes of equal inclination, these fringes result when light from an
extended source falls on a
thin film
A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer ( monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many ...
made of an
optically denser medium. These fringes indicate the positions where light interferes, emerging from the medium at an equal angle.
[ Hecht ] They are also observed in
Fabry-Pérot and
Michelson interferometer
The Michelson interferometer is a common configuration for optical interferometry and was invented by the 19/20th-century American physicist Albert Abraham Michelson. Using a beam splitter, a light source is split into two arms. Each of those ...
s. They can be observed by introducing a
converging lens between the film and observation plane with
focus
Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film
*''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore
* ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...
of the lens lying in observation plane.
See also
*
Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger
Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger (or Wilhelm von Haidinger, or most often Wilhelm Haidinger) (5 February 179519 March 1871) was an Austrian mineralogist.
Early life
Haidinger's father was the mineralogist Karl Haidinger (1756–1797), who died w ...
*
Haidinger's brush
Haidinger's brush, more commonly known as Haidinger's brushes is an image produced by the eye, an entoptic phenomenon, first described by Austrian physicist Wilhelm Karl von Haidinger in 1844. Haidinger saw it when he looked through various miner ...
References
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*
;Specific
Interference
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