Reducing the line curvature error of mechanically ruled gratings by interferometric control

Line curvature error greatly influences the quality of the diffraction wave fronts of machine-ruling gratings. To reduce the line curvature error, we propose a correction method that uses interferometric control. This method uses diffraction wave fronts of symmetrical orders to compute the mean line curvature error of the ruled grating, taking the mean line curvature error as the system line curvature error. To minimize the line curvature error of the grating, a dual-frequency laser interferometer is used as a real-time position feedback for the grating ruling stage, along with using a piezoelectric actuator to adjust the stage positioning to compensate the line curvature error. Our experiments show that the proposed method effectively reduced the peak-to-valley value of the line curvature error, improving the quality of the grating diffraction wave front.