LIMITING PRECISION IN OPTICAL INTERFEROMETRY

Abstract

The fundamental limit to the precision of setting on a fringe peak due to photon noise is evaluated for a certain class of interferometric methods in terms of parameters characterizing the source, the interferometer, and the detector. It is shown that changes in path difference of 10−10 should be detectable with an observing time of 1 second, using only modest equipment. Some of the experimental conditions required to attain this precision are discussed.