New contra old wavefront measurement concepts for interferometric optical testing

Three new and modified wavefront analysis concepts for interferometric optical testing are presented, specifically a moire fringes version of a temporal phase-shifting method and spatial-carrier phase-shifting and Fourier transform methods. All of these techniques require working with a finite fringe observation field in the interferometer, therefore additional analysis of the imaging optics is necessary. The impact of the interferometer construction and the method of analysis on the measurement error is discussed. A detailed experimental and theoretical comparison of the techniques is presented to fulfill a wide range of user requirements.