Investigation of Conductance Quantization with a Simple Interferometer System and Measurement of Displacement at Microscale

Interferometers, measure displacement, temperature, pressure, tensile angular velocity, etc. they are structures that provide extremely accurate and reliable measurement of physical parameters. They are used in various fields of nanoscience and technology. Their applications range from Michelson and Morley’s ether drift experiment to the extraordinary sensitivity of the modern gravitational wave detector.
In this project, it is aimed to measure the displacement on the micrometer scale by developing a simple interferometer system. For this purpose, a simple and low cost interferometer system was developed without the use of expensive optical elements such as a beam splitter and lenses. The rays coming from two mirrors illuminated by a laser in the system create an interference pattern on the camera. Very small changes in the micrometer scale that will occur in one of the optical paths can be calculated from shifts in the interference pattern. In the measurements made with the interferometer system, the expansion coefficient of the HDPE pipe, which was first fixed to the end of the moving mirror, was determined with a very small error of 0.375%. Secondly, quantization of conductance formed by a contact between two metals was demonstrated by the interferometer system, and the distance between the two metals was calculated using shifts in the interference pattern.
Quantization of conductance was observed by magnetic field or mechanical forces in the current studies. In these studies, different or the same type of conductors are usually used. However, the positions of these conductors are not measured. In this project, the conductance quantization was created in a controlled way by analyzing the change in interference pattern with thermal expansion. In addition, the advantage of measuring the distance between two metals is new according to these studies. As a result of literature research, it is seen that the quantization of conductance has a very important in the development of Nano sensor systems. Investigating the quantization of conductance by controlling the interference pattern in the interferometer system with a simple method and revealing its advantages will also contribute to the development of different sensor applications.