INTERFEROMETRIC MEASUREMENT OF NEAR-CYLINDRICAL SURFACES WITH HIGH AMPLITUDE RESOLUTION

Subaperture interferometric measurements of highly curved surfaces with a shape close to a cylinder have been performed in a normal-incident setup that consists of a Fizeau interferometer in combination with a plano-concave cylindrical lens. Since the field of view in the circumferential direction is limited by spherical aberration, the optical components were designed to minimize spherical aberration. For reference measurements a second piano-convex cylindrical lens was used. The subaperture setup leads to three-dimensional surface maps of the objects under test. To eliminate the influence of residual geometric aberrations, rectangular polynomials have been fitted and subtracted from the raw data. For deformations with spatial wavelengths below 30 mm, a rms amplitude resolution of 1 nm and a rms amplitude accuracy of 3 nm were achieved. Measurements on Welter-type-I mirror shells are discussed in detail. (C) 1995 Optical Society of America.