PURPOSE: To show the Zeeman Effect.
DESCRIPTION: The emission lines from a mercury lamp are sent through a polarizer and Fabry-Perot Etalon to create mercury green line interference rings, as shown in the above photo at left. A power supply is used to provide the current to an electromagnet. The magnetic field from the magnet surrounds the mercury gas and forces the D line to separate, as shown in the above right photo.
NOTES ON USE: Please give at least 1 week notice and preferably more as this is lab equipment that must be borrowed and returned. In the photos below the arrangement of the equipment is show.
EQUIPMENT: A Mercury lamp, holder and power supply, a high current electromagnet and power supply, a Fabry-Perot Etalon and polarizing filter with magna-base sitting on top of a steel plate or optic bench, camera and holder.
SETUP NOTES: The set up is shown in the photo below. The Mercury lamp is mounted in a holder between the poles of the electromagnet. The Fabry-Perot with is polarizing filter is placed close the the lamp and magnet and is carefully aligned for best image. The video camera looks closely into the Fabry-Perot. The camera lens is adjusted so the focus is at infinity and the zoom is to maximum.
This interferometer makes use of multiple reflections between two closely spaced partially silvered surfaces. Part of the light is transmitted each time the light reaches the second surface, resulting in multiple offset beams which can interfere with each other. The large number of interfering rays produces an interferometer with extremely high resolution, somewhat like the multiple slits of a diffraction grating increase its resolution.
