Presentation + Paper
21 August 2020 Amazing scatterplate interferometer
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The scatterplate interferometer is an amazing instrument invented by James M. Burch in 1953 for testing optical components and it is especially good for testing concave mirrors. This interferometer requires no high-quality optical components and it generates its own reference wavefront without having a reference surface. The light source does not have to be a point source or monochromatic - almost any light source will work. The path lengths of the two interferometer paths are automatically matched and, regardless of the reflectance of the test mirror, the light intensities of the two interfering beams are matched. The interferometer is not very sensitive to vibration and it is inexpensive to build. There are several ways to use phase-shifting techniques with the interferometer. This talk will describe and explain the properties of the amazing scatterplate interferometer.
Conference Presentation
© (2020) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
James C. Wyant "Amazing scatterplate interferometer", Proc. SPIE 11479, Roland V. Shack Memorial Session: A Celebration of One of the Great Teachers of Optical Aberration Theory, 1147907 (21 August 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2570914
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KEYWORDS
Interferometers

Light sources

Mirrors

Optical components

Optical testing

Reflectivity

Wavefronts

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