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The Fabry-Pérot interferometer (variable-gap interferometer) was produced in 1897 by the French physicists Charles Fabry and Alfred Pérot. It consists of two highly reflective and strictly parallel plates called an etalon. Because of the high reflectivity of the plates of the etalon, the successive multiple reflections of light waves diminish very slowly in intensity and form very...
The Fabry-Pérot interferometer consists of two reflecting mirrors that can be either curved or flat. Only certain wavelengths of light will resonate in the cavity: the light is in resonance with the interferometer if m(λ/2) = L, where L is the distance between the two mirrors, m is an integer, and λ is the wavelength of the light inside the...
...to record simultaneously a wide range of wavelengths with very high spectral resolution (i.e., to distinguish slightly differing wavelengths). For even higher spectral resolution astronomers employ Fabry-Pérot interferometers. Spectra provide powerful diagnostics of the physical conditions within nebulae. Images and spectra provided by Earth-orbiting satellites, especially the Hubble...
Fabry joined the staff of Marseilles University in 1894. His early studies centred on light interference, in which a primary research instrument was the Fabry–Pérot interferometer, invented in 1896 in collaboration with Alfred Pérot. This instrument was widely used for the measurement of the wavelengths of light and related studies. While applying it to study the light...
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