Lloyd's mirror

Lloyd's mirror is an optics experiment that was first described in 1834 by Humphrey Lloyd in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.[1] Its original goal was to provide further evidence for the wave nature of light, beyond those provided by Thomas Young and Augustin-Jean Fresnel. In the experiment, light from a monochromatic slit source reflects from a glass surface at a small angle and appears to come from a virtual source as a result. The reflected light interferes with the direct light from the source, forming interference fringes.[2][3] It is the optical wave analogue to a sea interferometer.[4]

  1. ^ Lloyd, Humphrey (1831). "On a New Case of Interference of the Rays of Light". The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. 17. Royal Irish Academy: 171–177. ISSN 0790-8113. JSTOR 30078788. Retrieved 2021-05-29.
  2. ^ Fresnel's and Lloyd's Mirrors
  3. ^ "Interference by the Division of the Wavefront" (PDF). University of Arkansas. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  4. ^ Bolton, J. G.; Slee, O. B. (1953). "Galactic Radiation at Radio Frequencies V. The Sea Interferometer". Australian Journal of Physics. 6: 420–433. Bibcode:1953AuJPh...6..420B. doi:10.1071/PH530420.