Optical methods for measurements of surface shape in optical components for high power laser beam forming

The paper presents modifications of full-field optical methods commonly used to test the surface quality of optical components used for forming a high power laser beam and tests of a final wavefront. The modifications in reference to surface measurements rely on implementation of the novel fringe pattern processing methods including the quality improvement of initial interferogram and analysis of a reconstructed phase based on Hilbert-Huang transform aided by the principal component analysis. Also the Point Diffraction Interferometer as the efficient tool for high quality measurements of elements with high NA is introduced. In reference to a wavefront quality measurements two solutions are discussed: the use of a lateral shear interferometer and the system employing Transport of Intensity Equation method. The pros and cons for both methods are discussed.