Error motion compensating tracking interferometer for the position measurement of objects with rotational degree of freedom

Abstract. The nonaxial interferometric position measurement of rotating objects can be performed by imaging the laser beam of the interferometer to a rotating mirror which can be a sphere or a cylinder. This, however, requires such rotating mirrors to be centered on the axis of rotation as a wobble would result in loss of the interference signal. We present a tracking-type interferometer that performs such measurement in a general case where the rotating mirror may wobble on the axis of rotation, or even where the axis of rotation may be translating in space. Aside from tracking, meaning to measure and follow the position of the rotating mirror, the interferometric measurement errors induced by the tracking motion of the interferometer itself are optically compensated, preserving nanometric measurement accuracy. As an example, we show the application of this interferometer in a scanning x-ray tomography instrument.