Shape measurements of mirror surfaces with a lateral-shearing interferometer during machine running

A common path lateral-shearing interferometer with a minimum number of optical components has been developed. Because the interferometer is little affected by mechanical vibrations and air turbulence, it can be mounted on an ultraprecision lathe and can be used to measure the shapes of workpieces. A plane parallel glass plate is used to shear the wavefront under test in the interferometer. To analyze the interference fringes obtained by the interferometer precisely, a fringe-scanning method using a slight tilt of the glass plate is used. Zone plates that are computer-generated holograms are used to measure spherical and aspherical surfaces with the interferometer. A spherical and a parabolic concave mirror were measured with the interferometer. The spherical mirror was also measured by a Fizeau interferometer to compare the error with that measured by the lateral-shearing interferometer. The experimental results agreed well with those measured by the lateral-shearing interferometer. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.