1. Lau Interferometry with Visible Light and Electron Waves
Niket Thakkar
Dr. Ben McMorran
Professor Alex Cronin
NASA Space Grant Symposium
April 18th, 2009
Hi, I’m niket. With the help of a former grad student named ben and my mentor alex cronin I’ve done some research on Lau interferometry with light and electrons. So, I’ll explain what I did first and a little bit on how it works and then I’ll get into what the point is. So…here we go …

2. But, before talking about a Lau interferometer…
We should talk about diffraction -
Diffraction analogy

3. Coherence Length Coherence length affects the interference
pattern. My goal was to find a way to measure
coherence. B
Coh length - “how far apart A and B can be located and still interfere predictably (I.e. make fringes)” A

4. The Optical Lau InterferometerG1 G2
Light passes through the grating, creates an interference effect, as that happens, there’s another grating. It makes this. click

5. Lau Fringes
Misaligned
Gratings
Perfectly Aligned
Gratings

6. Measuring Coherence
For a Gaussian case:

7. The Electron Lau Interferometer
Louis de Broglie

8. The Electron Lau Interferometer
Vac
Tungsten Source
Magnetic Lenses
Diffraction Gratings
Detector

9. X-Ray Lau Interferometry
Source G1 G2

10. Thank you for your attention