AIR-WEDGE

Experiment-434

MEASUREMENT OF THICKNESS
OF THIN OBJECTS USING THE
AIR-WEDGE TECHNIQUE
Jeethendra Kumar P K, Santhosh K and Sowmya*
KamalJeeth Instrumentation & Service Unit, JRD Tata Nagar, Bengaluru-560092, INDIA
*Student, Dept. of Electronics, Mangalore University, Mangalgangothri-574199

Email: labexperiments@kamaljeeth.net
Abstract
Using air-wedge microscope, polished glass plates, digital camera and
Newtons rings software the distance between two consecutive dark fringes is
measured and the thickness of sample forming the air-wedge is calculated and
compared with the thickness measured using a digital screw gauge.

Introduction
There are several applications in physics where measurement of very thin objects like
paper, mica, hair etc. is required. A screw gauge is generally used for this purpose.
However, the measurement involves fixing the object in between the jaws of the screw
gauge which exerts pressure on the object whose thickness is to be measured. This will,
however, depend on how much pressure one exerts to hold the object between the jaws
of the screw gauge. Therefore, for accurate measurement, one can use the air-wedge
method, which is also suitable for measurement of thickness of a thin film deposited on
a glass plate which may not be possible with a screw gauge. The air-wedge experiment
for measurement of thickness of thin objects is an important experiment in physics labs.

The principle of air-wedge method

When a piece of thin paper is introduced between two parallel transparent polished
glass plates of 25mm x 75mm size, a wedge of air is trapped between the two glass
plates. If the air wedge is now illuminated indirectly by a monochromatic light, using
another turning glass plate positioned at 45 above the air wedge, as shown in Figure-1,
the rays falling at an angle of 45 on the turning glass plate will get reflected down and
fall on the upper glass plate of the air wedge. The ray of light travels from the rarer
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(air) to denser (glass) medium and again from glass (denser) to air (rarer) and finally
reflected by the second glass plate. The rays get reflected and pass through the air
wedge before finally getting reflected from the upper surface of the bottom glass plate
of the air wedge.
The light rays emerging again through the wedge and glass plates are collected by the
objective of the travelling microscope and can be seen on the field of view of the
microscope. Because of undergoing multiple reflections through the air wedge and
glass plates, there will be phase difference between any two rays. These rays collected
by the objective of the travelling microscope will interfere with one another and form
interference fringes inside the tube of the microscope which can be viewed through the
eye piece. Interference fringes thus produced contain alternate bright and dark fringes.
To get such interference fringes the phase difference between the set of two rays is /2.
Hence the path difference between the set of rays producing interference fringes with
alternative light and dark fringes is /2.

Figure-1: The air wedge formed between two glass plates, illumination of the wedge
by monochromatic light and collection of reflected rays by the objective of the
telescope

Theory
Figure-1 depicts the path of light ray and its capture by the travelling microscope. If A
and B' are the positions of two consecutive dark fringes then the angle of inclination at
the point of contact of two glass plates is related as

Tan =

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since AC=AB'
This is the distance between two consecutive dark fringes, giving
AB' = y
To get bright and dark fringes the path difference between the rays must equal /2.
This indicates the path difference as
BC= /2
Substituting in Equation-1

Tan =

Considering the larger triangle OPP' in Figure-1, we can also write

Tan =

PP' is the thickness of the paper (or any thin object) that forms the air wedge. Hence

Tan = =

where OP'= l is the length of air wedge.

Equating Equations- 2 and 4 we get
Now equating Equation 2 and 4 we get

Thus the thickness, t, of the object forming the air wedge is given by
t=

In this experiment by measuring the separation between two consecutive dark fringes
(equal to the width of the bright fringe) the thickness of the object forming an air wedge
is determined. The experiment provides a method of finding the thickness of very thin
objects and thin films deposited on a glass plate. In case of thin objects like a sheet of
paper , hair, thin metal wire, or a thin mica sheet, one can verify the thickness measured
by employing the air wedge method with that obtained using a digital screw gauge to

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check the accuracy of the method for determining the thickness of thin films formed
between two glass plates.

Measurement of fringe separation with a digital camera

This experiment is part of our work on interfacing physics experiments with the PC or
laptop. Hence in this experiment the naked-eye observation and measurement using
micrometer are avoided. The same software used in the Newtons rings is used here to
observe and measure distance between two consecutive dark fringes.

Experimental set-up

Figure-2: The air-wedge formed between two glass plates and other samples
The air-wedge glass plates and the thin samples, namely a sheet of paper, thin sheet of
mica, and a copper strand used in this experiment are shown in Figure-2. Using a
digital screw gauge the thickness of the sample is measured and tabulated in Table-1.
The air-wedge experimental set-up used in the experiment is shown in Figure-3. It
consists of a sodium vapour lamp set, air-wedge microscope and 45 turning glass
plate. In addition to these, a digital vernier and digital screw gauge are also used for
cross-checking the measurements made by the air wedge method.
Table-1: Various samples and values of their thickness measured using digital screw
gauge
Sample
Thickness
(mm)
Human hair
0.043
Paper
0.080
Mica
0.104
Copper
0.119
strand

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Figure-3: Air-wedge experimental set-up

Experimental procedure
1. The air-wedge microscope is illuminated with sodium vapour lamp set. The
open- and closed ends of the air-wedge glass plates are identified.

Figure-4: Measurement of the distance l using digital vernier

2. A reference line is drawn with a marker pen on the bottom glass plate about
5mm from the open end for placing the object for measuring its thickness. Using
a digital vernier the distance between the closed end and the pen marking is
noted as shown in Figure-4. The distance l between the closed end of the airwedge glass plate and the pen marking is given by

l= 6.5cm

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3. A piece of hair whose thickness is to be determined is now placed on the pen

marking at the open end of the air-wedge glass plates and it is placed in the slot
of the turning glass plate.
4. The air-wedge is now observed through the microscope and the 45 turning glass
plate is adjusted such that straight line fringes are observed viewing through the
eye piece, as shown in Figure-5.

Figure-5: Observed straight line fringes

5. Now the eye piece is removed from the travelling microscope and the digital
camera is fitted in its place. The camera is connected to a lap-top or PC and
following operations are performed.
Open My computer
Click on USB Device, the window Take a new picture
Will appear on the screen

Figure-6: Display showing Take a new picture window

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Click on take a new picture which captures the image. Save and close this
window.
Next open the Newtons rings software. The window as shown in Figure-7 will
appear.

Figure-7: Newtons rings software window

Fill the experimenters name and click on load image appearing at the bottom
menu and select the captured image as explained. The captured image is shown
in Figure-8.

Figure-8: Observed air wedge interference fringe pattern

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Click on Set Origin by pointing the mouse at the center of the image. Two crossed
lines in green color will appear.
Click on the leftmost fringe of the straight line fringe pattern.
appear which is the 0 th fringe.

A white line will

Now count 10 fringes to the right of the 0th fringe and point the cursor to the 10th
fringe and click on it.
Another white line will appear as shown in Figure-9 and Table on left of the
window will show the distance between 0th and 10th fringe, which gives the width of
10 fringes.
The distance between 10 fringes = 3898.05m

Figure-9: White lines indicating distance between 10 fringes

6. Next click on column 2 in the table and the cursor is pointed on the 1st fringe to
the right of the 0th fringe. A white line will appear. Moving the cursor to the 11
fringe and by clicking on it another white line will appear. Table on left of the
window shows the distance between the 1 st and the 11th fringe. The total width
of 10 fringes is noted for this case also.
7. This procedure is continued by selecting 10 fringes, 2-12, 3-13 etc. In each case
the distance between 10 fringes is tabulated as shown in Figure-10.

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Figure-10: Selected fringes and their separation listed in table

8. The readings obtained are tabulated in Table-3.
9.
Table-3: Fringe separation (= width of 10 fringes)
Fringe numbers
Width of 10 fringes (m)
0-10
3898.05
1-11
3898.05
2-12
3845.84
3-13
3863.24
4-14
3950.65
5-15
3950.25
Average width of
3901.01
10 fringes
From Table-3, the average width of 10 fringes = 3901.01m. Hence, the fringe
width
y = 390.1m
The thickness or the diameter of the hair sample is calculated from Equation-5 as
t=

.
.

= 0.049mm

10. The experiment is repeated by replacing hair with a thin mica sheet, copper
strand and a paper one by one. In each case the fringe width is measured and
thickness is calculated as above. In the case of mica sheet or piece of paper, these

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are cut into a rectangular shape and while placing them, their left side should
coincide with the mark made on the glass.
Table-4: Thickness of various materials measured using the air-wedge method vis a
vis the values measured by the screw gauge
Material
Fringe width
Thickness of material (mm)
(y)m
Air-wedge
Screw gauge
Hair
390.10
0.049
0.043
Mica
153.60
0.140
0.104
Copper
151.37
0.126
0.119
strand
Paper
188.37
0.090
0.080

Results and discussion

Table-4 shows thickness of the various materials measured using air-wedge method vis
a vis the values measured with the digital screw gauge. For all the materials the
thickness measured by the two methods is approximately same. Measurement of
thickness of soft materials, such as paper, mica, hair, with a screw gauge will depend on
the pressure applied to the screw gauge for holding the sample. Hence the thickness
measured with the air-wedge method is more accurate as it does not depend on the
subjective judgement of the experimenter as in the case of a digital screw gauge. This is
evident from the measurement of thickness of a copper strand (which is a rigid body);
whose diameter is found to be exactly same by both the methods.

Reference:
[1]

S. P Basavaraju, A detailed text book of Engineering Physics Practicals, Page-27

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