World Inter­fe­ro­me­try Day

We cele­brate the World Inter­fe­ro­me­ter Day to com­me­mo­rate the semi­nal birth of the inter­fe­ro­me­ter in gene­ral and the Michel­son inter­fe­ro­me­ter in particular.

In the early days of April 1881, 140 years ago, Albert Abra­ham Michel­son suc­cessfully made his mea­su­re­ments of the rela­tive motion of the Earth with respect to the light ether using his now world-famous inter­fe­ro­me­ter setup. Since then, the inter­fe­ro­me­ter has truly tri­um­phed in sci­ence and technology.

As simple as the prin­ci­ple of this inter­fe­ro­me­ter was, as inge­nious was its inven­tion, which thus became prac­ti­cally syn­ony­mous with high-pre­cis­ion mea­su­re­ment tech­no­logy. Today, the appli­ca­ti­ons of inter­fe­ro­me­ters range from nano and pre­cis­ion tech­no­lo­gies to the explo­ra­tion of space and the mys­te­ries of gra­vi­ta­tio­nal waves. They embody, more than any other tech­no­logy, the art of mea­su­ring extra­or­di­na­rily minute quan­ti­ties and effects. Pushing tech­no­logy to its limits and chal­len­ging it to ever new heights – that is the credo of modern laser inter­fe­ro­me­ter technology.

World Inter­fe­ro­me­ter Day is inten­ded to raise the visi­bi­lity of a uni­que tech­no­logy that, like no other, has been able to open up new per­spec­ti­ves of know­ledge and con­ti­nues to prove this today. It should also be seen as a call to streng­then sci­en­ti­fic and eco­no­mic coope­ra­tion, and to use its poten­tial to pro­mote sus­tainable deve­lo­p­ment worldwide.