  Laser interferometry is an extensively used diagnostic for plasma
experiments. Existing plasma interferometers are designed on the presumption
that the scene and reference beam path lengths have to be equal, a requirement
that is costly in both the number of optical components and the alignment
complexity. It is shown here that having equal path lengths is not necessary -
instead what is required is that the path length difference be an even multiple
of the laser cavity length. This assertion has been verified in a heterodyne
laser interferometer that measures typical line-average densities of $\sim
10^{21}/\textrm{m}^2$ with an error of $\sim 10^{19}/\textrm{m}^2$.
