History of Development of the Methods and Interference Devices for Measuring a Small Optical Phase Difference (Review)

Abstract

Interferometry methods, which are applied for measuring quite small phase differences in fundamental and applied problems, are considered. It is shown that first improvements of the interferometric methods for measuring small phase differences to detect various physical phenomena in the second half of the 19th century and in the early 20th century were made by H. Fizeau, A.A. Michelson, E.W. Morley, Lord Rayleigh, D.C. Miller, and G. Sagnac. It is also shown that the most sensitive method of modulation interferometry was developed in 1949–1952 by Soviet radiophysicists A.A. Andronov, I.L. Bershtein, and G.S. Gorelik. Note that the method of modulation interferometry could be implemented even in 1914 using a photocell with external photoelectric effect or in 1923 using a photocell with internal photoelectric effect (photodiode). However, professional opticians used conventional methods of measuring a small phase difference at that time, and radiophysics only began to develop as science. It is shown that the methods of electric and photoelectric harmonic analysis developed in the late 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century could be successfully applied in interferometry; however, they have been almost completely forgotten by the time of their possible practical application.