Method to mosaic gratings that relies on analysis of far-field intensity patterns in two wavelengths

We propose an experimental method to coherently mosaic two planar diffraction gratings. The method uses a Twyman-Green interferometer to guarantee the planar parallelism of the two sub-aperture gratings, and obtains the in-plane rotational error and the two translational errors from analysis of the far-field diffraction intensity patterns in two alignment wavelengths. We adjust the relative attitude and position of the two sub-aperture gratings to produce Airy disk diffraction patterns in both wavelengths. In our experiment, the repeatability of in-plane rotation adjustment was 2.35 mu rad and that of longitudinal adjustment was 0.11 mu m. The accuracy of lateral adjustment was about 2.9% of the grating period. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.