1. The Speed of Light in Vacuum
A Universal Constant:
The Speed of Light in Vacuum
The spacetime constant:
Perhaps surprisingly, CEM = CST
Any particle with vanishing mass will propagate with c.

2. Measuring the
Speed of Light

4. Polarization of Light

5. Types of Polarization

6. Reflection causes Polarization

7. Experiment &
The Inverse Square Law

8. Photometry:

9. Three polarizers can be good for a surprise …

10. Performance of Photometers

11. Interference and the two slit experiment by Young:

12. 2d-fringe pattern and intensity distribution

13. Interferometry fringes: due to path-length differences

14. Impact of Source Coherence
He-Ne laser detail

15. White Line Fringes via Spectrograph

16. Complications:
due to coating
Reflectance fct. of wavelength
TM perp., TE par. pol. rel. to plane of incidence

17. Diffraction modifies interference patterns:

19. Diffraction gratings (note: inverse of x-ray diffraction):

20. Michelson Interferometer

21. Michelson-Morley & the ether wind

22. Fabry-Perot Interferometry:
2 parallel mirrors, allowing for multiple round trips of light
Sharp resonance for high mirror reflectivities, i.e. high
transmission only for optical frequencies close to some desired value.
Sharp feature allows for ultra-precise distance measurement.
Relativity: Fizeau interferometer is a variation of Fabry-Perot.

24. Mach-Zehnder Interferometry:
2 separate beam splitters,
2 outputs usually read by
photo-detectors
Power distribution between
outputs can be controlled
by arm lengths
Mis-aligned beams produce
fringe patterns