Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This question involves associating specific phenomena or devices from wave optics with their respective experiments, examples, or definitions.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
(A) Circular Fringes: In the Newton's Ring experiment, the air film's thickness is constant for a given circle around the point of contact. These loci of equal thickness generate circular interference fringes. Thus, (A) corresponds to (II).
(B) Straight parallel and equidistant interference pattern: When interference occurs in a thin air film shaped like a wedge (e.g., between two glass slides at a small angle), the fringes of equal thickness appear as straight, parallel, and equidistant lines, running parallel to the wedge's edge. Therefore, (B) corresponds to (III).
(C) Polarizer: A polarizer is a device that converts unpolarized light into polarized light. A Nicol prism, constructed from a calcite crystal, is a well-known example of a polarizer that utilizes double refraction. Consequently, (C) corresponds to (I).
(D) E-ray and O-ray travel with same speed: In a birefringent (doubly refracting) crystal, unpolarized light divides into an ordinary ray (O-ray) and an extraordinary ray (E-ray). These two rays typically travel at different speeds. However, there exists a specific direction within the crystal where their speeds are equal. This unique direction is termed the Optic axis. Hence, (D) corresponds to (IV).
Step 3: Final Answer:
The correct pairings are: (A)-(II), (B)-(III), (C)-(I), (D)-(IV). This aligns with option (A).