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The ''N''-slit interferometer is an extension of the double-slit interferometer also known as Young's double-slit interferometer. One of the first known uses of ''N''-slit arrays in optics was illustrated by Newton.〔I. Newton, ''Opticks'' (Royal Society, London, 1704).〕 In the first part of last century, Michelson〔A. A. Michelson, ''Studies in Optics'' (Chicago University, Chicago, 1927).〕 described various cases of ''N''-slit diffraction. Feynman〔R. P. Feynman, R. B. Leighton, and M. Sands, ''The Feynman Lectures on Physics'', Vol. III (Addison Wesley, Reading, 1965).〕 described thought experiments, of two-slit quantum interference, of electrons using Dirac's notation.〔P. A. M. Dirac, ''The Principles of Quantum Mechanics'', 4th Ed. (Oxford, London, 1978).〕 This approach was extended to ''N''-slit interferometers, by Duarte and colleagues in 1989,〔F. J. Duarte and D. J. Paine, Quantum mechanical description of ''N''-slit interference phenomena, in ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers '88'', R. C. Sze and F. J. Duarte (Eds.) (STS, McLean, Va, 1989) pp. 42–47.〕 using narrow-linewidth laser illumination, that is, illumination by indistinguishable photons. The first application of the ''N''-slit interferometer was the generation and measurement of complex interference patterns.〔〔F. J. Duarte, On a generalized interference equation and interferometric measurements, ''Opt. Commun.'' 103, 8-14 (1993).〕 These interferograms are accurately reproduced, or predicted, by the ''N''-slit interferometric equation for either even (''N'' = 2, 4, 6,…), or odd (''N'' = 3, 5, 7,…), numbers of slits.〔 ==''N''-slit laser interferometer== The ''N''-slit laser interferometer, introduced by Duarte,〔〔〔(F. J. Duarte, Electro-optical interferometric microdensitometer system, ''US Patent'' 5255069 (1993) ).〕 uses prismatic beam expansion to illuminate a transmission grating, or ''N''-slit array, and a photoelectric detector array (such as a CCD or CMOS) at the interference plane to register the interferometric signal.〔〔〔F. J. Duarte, in ''High Power Dye Lasers'' (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1991) Chapter 2.〕 The expanded laser beam illuminating the ''N''-slit array is single-transverse-mode and narrow-linewidth. This beam can also take the shape, via the introduction of a convex lens prior to the prismatic expander, of a beam extremely elongated in the propagation plane and extremely thin in the orthogonal plane.〔〔 This use of one-dimensional (or line) illumination eliminates the need of point-by-point scanning in microscopy and microdensitometry.〔〔 Thus, these instruments can be used as straight forward ''N''-slit interferometers or as interferometric microscopes (see section on microscopy). The disclosure of this interferometric configuration introduced the use of digital detectors to ''N''-slit interferometry.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「N-slit interferometer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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