A New Mach–Zehnder Interferometer to Measure Light Beam Dispersion and Phase Shift

A novel Mach–Zehnder (M-Z) interferometer used to measure the dispersion and phase shift of a light beam is reported. The interferometer consists of two identical beam displacing polarizers, which makes two beams of interference light pass through the same optical device and greatly improves the stability of the M-Z interferometer. The basic method of dispersion and phase measuring through the present interferometer is introduced in detail, and the actual application is demonstrated by a specific example. Because the measuring of dispersion and phase shift is the heating point in the field of optics, it is obvious that the M-Z interferometer will have important applications in aspects of optics, especially quantum optics and optical information processing.