The basic Michelson interferometer setup uses any kind of beam splitter to divide one beam of light into two beams, each of them back-reflected to the beam splitter and recombined and directed to the fourth arm where any kind of detector is placed. One arm of the interferometer may have a different length or contain some material under test.
Using this simplified version of a Michelson interferometer setup, one can learn the handling, alignment, and measurement techniques of a basic interferometer system. Interferometry is a technique used to investigate optical phenomena through the creation of interference patterns (hence, "interferometer"). Interferometers come in many shapes and sizes, all of which, in some way or another, split a light source and then recombine it at the output of the device. Depending on the arrangement of various beam splitters and mirrors, the optical paths of the split beams can vary and their recombination may, therefore, result in an interference pattern.
The detailed content for this course is currently located on the moodle website of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Please check that site for further information.