Real-time phase-front detector for heterodyne interferometers.

We present a real-time differential phase-front detector sensitive to better than 3 mrad rms, which corresponds to a precision of approximately 500 pm. This detector performs a spatially resolving measurement of the phase front of a heterodyne interferometer, with heterodyne frequencies up to approximately 10 kHz. This instrument was developed as part of the research for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna Technology Package interferometer and will assist in the manufacture of its flight model. Because of the advantages this instrument offers, it also has general applications in optical metrology.

[1]  Ulrich Johann,et al.  Interferometry for the LISA technology package (LTP) aboard SMART-2 , 2003 .

[2]  Toyohiko Yatagai,et al.  Generalized phase-shifting interferometry , 1990, Other Conferences.

[3]  J. Wyant,et al.  Optical frequency shifter for heterodyne interferometers using multiple rotating polarization retarders. , 1978, Applied optics.

[4]  Zoran Sodnik,et al.  Noise sources in the LTP heterodyne interferometer , 2006 .

[5]  Chris L. Koliopoulos,et al.  Fourier description of digital phase-measuring interferometry , 1990 .

[6]  Electro-optics.  Conference on lasers and electro-optics (CLEO) , 2003 .

[7]  Li Xiaoying,et al.  Elimination of reference phase errors in phase-shifting interferometry , 2005 .

[8]  Fizeau interferometer for phase shifting interferometry in ultrahigh vacuum , 2001 .

[9]  Ulrich Johann,et al.  Successful testing of the LISA Technology Package (LTP) interferometer engineering model , 2005 .

[10]  Ulrich Johann,et al.  The LTP interferometer and phasemeter , 2004 .

[11]  Thomas J. Flynn,et al.  TWO-DIMENSIONAL PHASE UNWRAPPING WITH MINIMUM WEIGHTED DISCONTINUITY , 1997 .

[12]  Feng Zhao.  Picometer laser metrology for the space interferometry mission (SIM) , 2004, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2004. (CLEO)..

[13]  Louis A. Romero,et al.  Robust two-dimensional weighted and unweighted phase unwrapping that uses fast transforms and iterative methods , 1994 .

[14]  K. Hibino,et al.  Phase-shifting algorithms for nonlinear and spatially nonuniform phase shifts , 1997 .

[15]  Ulrich Johann,et al.  LTP interferometer—noise sources and performance , 2005 .

[16]  Guangjun Zhang,et al.  Nonlinear error by orientation and elliptic polarization in a two-beam interferometer , 2002 .

[17]  Brad Kimbrough,et al.  Modern approaches in phase measuring metrology (Invited Paper) , 2005, SPIE Optical Metrology.