Optics: measuring and testing – By polarized light examination – With birefringent element
Patent
1981-07-28
1985-03-12
Willis, Davis L.
Optics: measuring and testing
By polarized light examination
With birefringent element
356353, G01B 902
Patent
active
045041474
ABSTRACT:
A sensor for measuring angular deviations of a radiation beam relative to a reference plane. The sensor comprises a shearing interferometer block formed of a beamsplitter cube having a first reflecting device on one face of the cube for forming a first exit beam and a second reflecting device on the opposite face of the cube for forming a second exit beam. The first device can be a corner cube or a flat block mirror. The second device can be a right angle prism for one dimensional measurements and a 90.degree. pyramid prism for two-dimensional measurements. A photo-detector unit is adjacent to and spaced from the beam splitter cube and has a number of detector members across the path of travel of the wavefronts of the exit beams. The detector members provide output signals which can be used to calculate the angular deviation of the incoming beam from a normal to the reference plane. The optical path difference between the two arms of the interferometer block are equal substantially to odd multiples of one-fourth the wavelength of the incoming radiation. The sensor is accurate to better than 0.001 arc seconds of angular measurements for a photodetector unit whose maximum transverse dimension is 2.5 cm.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3729260 (1973-04-01), Walsh
patent: 4395123 (1983-07-01), Minott
Crane, Jr., "The Angle-Scanned Interferometer", Optical Engineering, vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 205-211, Apr. 1979.
Koren Matthew W.
Willis Davis L.
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