Effect of Airy disk on schlieren diffraction interferometer

Schlieren is among the oldest and widely used optical techniques for detection of change in refractive index in transparent media. Present work demonstrates the effect of the position of schlieren element in the Airy pattern on the schlieren interferogram. It has been shown that the amplitude of the diffracted wave, starting from schlieren element and serving as an inbuilt reference beam for the schlieren diffraction interferometer, becomes maximum when schlieren element diffracts light from the Airy disk. Effect of F-number of the optical system on schlieren pattern is also demonstrated via observations on the amplitude of diffracted light.