Hua Shen

Method of alignment error control in free-form surface metrology with the tilted-wave-interferometer

Abstract. Compared with conventional optical elements, free-form surface optical elements, as a kind of nonrotationally symmetrical shaped component, can provide more freedom in optical design, optimize the structure of the optical system, and improve its performance. However, the difficulties involved in the measurement of free-form elements restrict their manufacture and application. A tilted-wave-interferometer (TWI) can achieve high precision in free-form surface measurement, but it requires higher space attitude error control. We analyze the relation between the alignment error and the measurement error introduced by the misalignment in free-form surface metrology with TWI. The attitude control method in the rotation direction is proposed based on the moire fringe technique. Then, combining it with the five-dimensional space attitude control method of aspherical elements, we put forward an alignment error control process in measuring the free-form surface. An experiment of measuring a free-form surface using TWI shows the effectiveness of our method.

Assessment of optical freeform surface error in tilted-wave-interferometer by combining computer-generated wave method and retrace errors elimination algorithm

Abstract. As is well-known, optical testing has begun to emerge as a limiting factor in the application of freeform surfaces. In all kinds of published freeform optical metrology, the tilted-wave-interferometer (TWI) is the precise and flexible method for testing a freeform surface as it can compensate the local surface’s deviation from its best fit sphere by using a set of tilted waves. In the process of measurement with TWI, accurate assessment of the test surface error from the fringes plays a key role. We present a method for evaluation and characterization of surface aberrations in TWI by combining computer-generated wave technology and a retrace errors elimination algorithm. The feasibility of the method is proved by the simulation and experimental results.

New technique for generating light source array in tilted wave interferometer

Smaller and lighter optical systems with better performance can be built by the use of freeform optics. However, most optical systems were constrained to traditional surfaces for the accurate metrology of freeform surface is a challenge so far unsolved. One high-precision approach to measure freeform surface with less time and expense is using tilted wave interferometer. A lens array is placed in the test path of the interferometer, which can generate light source array that locally compensate the gradient of test surface. But each source generated by lens array is not ideal spherical wave which contains aberrations. In addition, the sources cannot be activated individually during the measurement, so that it is impossible to perform an irregular source array according to the gradient variation of each test surface. Thus, a novel technique based on fiber array is proposed for generating irregular source array. Whereas, the position deviation of each fiber and phase difference produced by the length of each fiber affect the measurement result. In this paper, the consequences of above errors are analyzed. A calibration method can obtain the exact spatial coordinates of each fiber is suggested to calculate the position deviation of each fiber. Meanwhile, a method based on Mach-Zehnder interference system is presented, which can get phase difference produced by the length of each fiber accurately. Afterwards, the data obtained by the two calibration methods are introduced into the mathematical model of system error for eliminating the measurement error introduced by the use of fiber array. An elliptical mirror is measured by our tilted wave interferometer based on fiber array showing the feasibility of the proposed methods.

Suppressing the influence of charge-coupled device vertical blooming on the measurement of laser beam quality factor (M^2) of a near-infrared laser

In this paper, a new method, which is based on reconstructing the original intensity distribution of a laser with images captured by a charge-coupled device (CCD) in two orthogonal directions, is proposed for suppressing the influence of CCD vertical blooming on the measurement of the laser beam quality factor (M2). A simplified theoretical model for the distribution of CCD blooming is also proposed. With the proposed method and model, the influence of CCD vertical blooming on the measurement of M2 is simulated. The experimental results demonstrate that the new method can be an effective means to measure the M2 of a near-infrared laser with a silicon CCD camera. The proposed method can be applied to a beam quality analyzer in order to suppress the influence of blooming on the measurement of M2.

Determination of the laser beam quality factor (M 2 ) by stitching quadriwave lateral shearing interferograms with different exposures

A complete complex amplitude reconstruction method for the determination of the laser beam quality factor M2 based on the multiple exposure of a quadriwave lateral shearing interferometer (QWLSI) is presented. The theoretical analysis and simulation of the influence of the information in the small signal area on the calculation of the M2 factor is provided. The experimental results demonstrate that the new method can be an accurate means to measure the M2 factor. The proposed method can avoid the influence of phase inaccuracy in the small signal area of the interferogram, during the measurement of the M2 factor.