Lateral shearing interferometer for large aperture: merit consideration and analysis

In this paper, we report a variable shearing Michelson interferometer using a converging beam. The beam divider was achieved by sandwiching a partially reflecting film between two identical plane parallel plate. The angle of incidence of the beam divider is adjusted smaller than 22.5 in order to keep the size of the beam divider reasonably small. The variable shear is achieved by rotating the beam divider.