Dispersive white light combined with a frequency-modulated continuous-wave interferometer for high-resolution absolute measurements of distance

A nonincremental interferometer for the absolute measurement of distances is presented. The measuring technique is based on both dispersive white-light (DWL) interferometry and frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) interferometry. The proposed configuration integrates both techniques in the same interferometer by use of a single laser diode. This solution enables the results from the coarse measurements from the FMCW interferometer to be combined with the fine readouts from the DWL interferometer. Preliminary experimental results confirm the capability of the system to combine the advantages of the two techniques.     

The measurement of the diameter change of a piezoelectric transducer cylinder with the white-light interferometry

The measurement of the diameter change of a piezoelectric transducer (PZT) cylinder with the white-light interferometry is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. One arm of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is wrapped on the PZT cylinder, and the phase change of the interferogram of the MZI is used to determine the diameter change when a DC voltage is applied on the PZT cylinder. The Fourier transform white-light interferometry is used for recovering the phase change of the interferometer. The experimental results show that the diameter change resolution of 0.8 nm for the PZT cylinder with diameter of 40 mm is achieved.     

Absolute Testing of the Profiles of Large-Size Plane Optical Surfaces

We show the results obtained from the measurements of surface profiles of various optical elements using a wide-aperture white-light interferometer. The developed measurement method eliminates fundamental constraints on the size and mass of the samples tested. This method, used along with the high-order white-light interferometry and the original calibration of the reference plate of the interferometer, permit real-time testing of surface profiles with an accuracy of up to 1 in a wide technological range.     

Development of a time-resolved white-light interference microscope for optical phase measurements during fs-laser material processing

A modified Mach–Zehnder interferometer set-up combined with microscope objectives has been developed for the measurement of phase changes in the processed material sample, like modification and melting of glass. The white light is generated by focusing ultrafast laser radiation (t _p=80 fs) in a sapphire crystal using a micro-lens array to minimize temporal and spatial fluctuations in the white-light continuum. Lateral and coaxial pump-probe measurements of the phase changes during material processing are performed using two coupled ultrafast laser sources at different repetition rates (f _rep=1 Hz–1 MHz). The optical phase shift and therefore the refractive index of the material are calculated from the interference images using two approaches. The knowledge of the refractive index during the laser processing with a temporal resolution in the ps-range and a spatial resolution of several microns leads to a better understanding of the initial processes for the permanent material modifications.     

The Use of Carousel Interferometer in Fourier-Transform Ultraviolet Spectroscopy

The carousel interferometer is a new type of an interferometer, which has been invented at the University of Turku. It consists of a beamsplitter and five plane mirrors. Four of the mirrors are mounted on a carousel, which rotates back and forth. We have modified the interferometer for use in the Fourier-transform ultraviolet (FT-UV) spectroscopy. Test measurement with plasma radiation gives favourable results. The most important property, which makes the carousel interferometer suitable for UV measurements, is its good stability in modulation.Presented at 1996 International Workshop on Interferometry (IWI ‘96), August 27–29, Saitama, Japan.     

Determining the phase-energy coupling coefficient in carrier-envelope phase measurements

For f-to-2f interferometers based on white-light generation in sapphire plates, the accuracy of the carrier-envelope (CE) phase measurement and stabilization is affected by the laser energy fluctuation. The coupling coefficient between the CE phase and the laser energy has been determined by modulating the pulse energy in an in-loop f-to-2f interferometer while measuring the CE phase variation with an out-loop interferometer. When the total spectral phase measured by the in-loop interferometer was locked, a 1% change in laser energy caused a 160 mrad shift in the CE phase of the output pulses.     

Constructive and Destructive Two-Pulse Excitation Investigated with a White-Light Michelson Interferometer

Linear propagation of two pulses through methanol solution of aluminum phthalocyanine chloride is investigated using a modified white-light Michelson interferometer. The observed coherence time of the white light is 6 fs, and the separation between the two-excitation pulses is set to about 10 fs. The excitation is dependent on the phase-relation between the two pulses. We have observed an enhancement of the excitation when the two pulses are in-phase and strong suppression of the excitation when the two pulses are out of phase by π.     

菲索干涉仪中精确移相的实现

为了实现移相式菲索干涉仪对光学元件面形的高精度测量,建立了干涉仪同步采集移相系统,并对精确移相方法进行了研究。介绍了移相系统的构成和工作原理,计算了测量过程中移相器的速度。针对PZT移相器在移相过程中会引入离焦误差,并存在加速段和减速段的问题,详细设计了移相器的行进过程。最后,对移相器的性能进行了标定。在改造后的干涉仪上开展了重复性验证实验,结果表明：干涉仪可以获得λ/11 340的RMS测量重复性。对改造后干涉仪与Zygo公司生产的Verifire XP/D干涉仪的测量精度做了比对实验,结果显示：相同元件下两者测量结果的面形RMS之差约为0.9 nm,表明提出的移相系统及移相方法在重复性和准确度方面都能满足纳米级面形测量的要求,为研制高精度移相干涉仪奠定了基础。     

Modified polarization point diffraction interferometer with extended measurable NA for spherical surface testing

The small pinhole of point diffraction interferometer based on pinhole-point diffraction places ultra-high requirement on both the adjustment of testing system and performance of CCD camera. Besides, poor fringe contrast due to the low reflectivity of test spherical surface would limit the measurement precision in the processing of fringe pattern. A modified polarization point diffraction interferometer with extended measurable numerical aperture (NA) is presented for testing the spherical surfaces with low reflectivity. Measurement error factors as well as the corresponding calibration procedure are introduced in detail. Comparing with the results of Zygo interferometer, measurement accuracy with root-mean-square (RMS) value about 0.0026λ and peak-to-valley (PV) 0.0134λ is achieved. The system has good measurement repeatability, and the standard deviation of measurement results RMS better than 0.0010λ is obtained. The proposed interferometer reduces the difficulty in the adjustment of the system and provides a feasible way for testing the surfaces with low reflectivity and high NA.     

Coherence effects in surface roughness induced by vacuum ultraviolet F2 laser ablation

We analyze statistical fluctuations in the pulse-to-pulse spatial fluence distribution of a highly multimode F2 laser beam and the influence that coherence effects have on the attainable smoothness of an ablated surface. The magnitude of fluctuations is predicted to be a few percent, with associated roughness increasing as m1/2, where m is the number of ablation pulses. By use of a white-light optical interferometer, measurements have been made of roughness induced on N-BK7 glass surfaces ablated with a 157-nm laser, and reasonable agreement with predictions based on this roughening mechanism has been found.     

Stroboscopic supercontinuum white-light interferometer for MEMS characterization

We used a supercontinuum-based scanning white-light interferometer to characterize the oscillation of a MEMS device. The output of a commercially available supercontinuum light source (FiberWare Ilum II USB) was modulated to achieve stroboscopic operation. By synchronizing the modulation frequency of the source to the sample oscillation, dynamic 3-D profile measurements were recorded. These results were validated against those obtained with a white light LED setup. The measured maximum deflection of a 400×25×4 μm(3) microbridge driven with 0-6.8 V sinusoidal voltage at 10 Hz was 1.42±0.03 μm (supercontinuum), which agreed with the LED measurement. The method shows promise for characterization of high-frequency MEMS devices.     

基于宽光谱干涉系统的拼接主镜共相位检测技术

 针对拼接式大口径望远镜主镜,提出一种基于迈克尔逊干涉原理基础上的宽带光谱（白光）干涉检测方法,对拼接子镜间相位误差进行实时检测,进而对失调子镜进行相应校正,以实现拼接子镜的共面排布。子镜间相位误差通过干涉图形间的不匹配性进行提取。应用双中心波长组合白光源来提高白光中心条纹的可见度,通过理论仿真,对不同中心波长组合的白光中心条纹可见度进行比较,结果表明：该双中心波长组合白光源系统的应用,可以提高白光干涉中心条纹的信号分辨能力,借以提高检测精度,使得该白光干涉检测系统对拼接子镜间的相位失调误差进行高精度提取。     

New data-processing technique for measurement of metallic foil thickness with differential white-light interferometry

The thickness of metallic foil was measured by differential white-light interferometry (DWLI). Two tandem Michelson interferometers (MI), in which the reflective surfaces measured are the surfaces of the metallic foil, were used as a basic interferometry system to obtain interference fringes on a spectrometer. Therefore, the interference fringes depend only on the path differences caused by the thickness of the metallic foil. The interference fringes were analyzed using a modified extremum method based on the least root-mean-square (RMS) deviation. Experimental results for thickness measurements are presented. Measurement time is only 100 ms or less for a thickness of 1–80 μm.     

A white-light interferometer using a lamp source and heterodyne detection with acousto-optic modulators

A heterodyne technique for white-light interferometer with a lamp source, which uses two acousto-optic modulators, is developed for high-sensitivity detection of weak light. By using converging input beams input into a Michelson interferometer with spherical mirrors, the spectral dependence of the modulators is canceled, and the white-light heterodyne interference fringes are generated at 200 kHz. Using a tandem interferometer, the object surface which has a low surface reflectivity of less than 10⁻⁴ was detected with a good signal-to-noise ratio.     

Measurement technique for depth profiling in time-domain low-coherence interferometer

A measurement technique for depth profiling in a time-domain low-coherence interferometer has been proposed. The spatial variation of the optical path caused by a diffraction grating in the Littrow configuration produces a white-light interferogram. A one-dimensional charge-coupled device (1D-CCD) detector is used to measure the undersampled white-light interferogram. The position of the reflective boundary is calculated from the rate of phase change with spatial frequency, which is based on the sub-Nyquist sampling of the white-light interferogram in the frequency domain.     

Three-dimensional profile stitching based on the fiducial markers for microfluidic devices

Profile acquisition of microfluidic devices is a challenging task due to the competing requirements of both large field of view (FOV) and high-resolution. One strategy for obtaining such measurement is linking or stitching high-resolution profiles, possibly from multiple instruments, into a large FOV profile. As opposed to current stitching techniques relying on precise control and measurement of the translation of the sample stage, our approach presented in this paper takes advantage of the overlapping of fiducial markers, to align and stitch the separately measured profiles of a device. This method allows three-dimensional profiles transformed in six degrees of freedom, so that the pitch, roll and yaw among measurements are compensated, and stitching can be processed in both in-plane and out-of plane directions. Measurements of microfluidic channels recorded by an atomic force microscope and a white-light interferometer are stitched with accuracies evaluated to be 0.086 μm and 0.094 μm, respectively. Stitching experiments for large-scale profile gets an accuracy of 0.047 μm. Special form of stitching for profiles acquired by different tools, i.e. key parts of a device profile measured by a small FOV high-resolution instrument are stitched into a large FOV low-resolution profile by another instrument, is also carried out with an accuracy of 0.224 μm.     

Fast LEED intensity measurements with a video camera and a video tape recorder

The measurement of LEED intensities with a TV camera-computer system, which has been published in an earlier paper, is reported to be improved with respect to the speed of data collection by a factor of about 10². Other properties such as sensitivity, reliability and handling facility have also been improved. The new measuring mode, which applies a video tape recorder, allows the simultaneous measurement of all appearing diffraction spots down to a beam current of 10⁻¹¹ A with a rate of 50 energy points/s. This pushes the total measuring time for LEED spectra to the order of seconds and makes possible to monitor non-stable surfaces. As an example intensity measurements for different adsorption stages of hydrogen on W(100) are presented.     

Broadband near-infrared fibers dispersion measurement using white-light spectral interferometry

A new technique for an experimental determination of the effective refractive index, group refractive index and dispersion of fibers in a broad near-infrared spectral range is presented. The method is based on a white-light spectral interference which utilizes an unbalanced Michelson interferometer. The effective refractive index is obtained by a direct fitting the cosine function to the spectral interference pattern recorded by a low resolution spectrometer. The method has been tested in the spectral range of 1000-1700 nm both with standard telecommunication fibers and a sample of a photonic fiber. The accuracy of dispersion measurement () exceeds those from the previously reported near-infrared white-light spectral interference methods.     

Evaluation of spectral phase in spectrally resolved white-light interferometry: Comparative study of single-frame techniques

Spectral phase in a white-light interferogram contains information about the absolute optical path difference (OPD) in the interferometer. Evaluation of spectral phase is therefore important in applications such as profilometry with white light. In spectrally resolved white-light interferometry (SRWLI) the white-light interferogram is spectrally decomposed by a spectrometer in order to determine this phase. Several single-frame techniques in SRWLI have been proposed for the evaluation of the phase including Fourier transform, Hilbert transform, spatial phase shifting, windowed Fourier transform and wavelet transform. In this paper we present a comparative study of these techniques in this application in relation to the temporal phase-shifting technique which is a multi- frame method. Further, we also propose a modified method to remove the influence of source spectrum modulation in Hilbert transform procedure.