Optics: measuring and testing – By particle light scattering – With photocell detection
Patent
1998-08-18
2000-09-26
Kim, Robert H.
Optics: measuring and testing
By particle light scattering
With photocell detection
356358, G01B 902
Patent
active
061249297
ABSTRACT:
A Michelson interferometer includes a beamsplitter onto which an input light beam is directed. The beamsplitter divides the input light beam into a first beam portion incident upon a first fixed reflector and a second beam portion incident upon a movable retroreflector. The movable retroreflector reflects the second beam onto another fixed reflector and then back to the beamsplitter where the first and second beams are combined and directed to a detector. The movable retroreflector is attached to one end of a rotating arm moving at a constant angular velocity. The retroreflector reflects the second beam at a fixed location in its orbital path. The angular velocity of the retroreflector and rotating arm combination may be varied over a wide range to provide a large modulated frequency bandwidth. The operating duty cycle of the interferometer may be doubled by attaching a second retroreflector to the other end of the rotating arm, with the weights of the two retroreflectors counterbalancing each other. The interferometer's optical alignment is insensitive to angular tilt and lateral shear (horizontal and vertical translation) of the interferometer's scanning element.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4383762 (1983-05-01), Burkert
patent: 5331399 (1994-07-01), Tank et al.
patent: 5491551 (1996-02-01), Mattson
Article, C.J. Manning, Smoke and Mirrors: Ultra-Rapid-Scan FT-IR Spectrometry, Aug., 1997; pp. 1-12.
Aspen International Conference on Fourier Spectroscopy, 1970; Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories; George A. Vanasse et al., pp. 48, 49 and 53.
Article, Edson R. Peck, "A New Principle in Interferometer Design, " Journal of the Optical Society of America, Jan. 1948, p. 66.
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