The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 24, 1976
Filed:
Dec. 26, 1973
Tadashi Morokuma, Toyko, JA;
Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JA;
Abstract
Interferometers for precise determination of lengths and more particularly, a highly sensitive interferometer which can produce interference fringes one fringe separation of which corresponds to .lambda./2N (.lambda. is a wavelength of an incident light and N is an integer which is 2, 3, 4 . . . ). The interferometer comprises light emitting means at least one beam splitting means, retroreflecting optical means and bilateral reflecting optical means. Two embodiments of the beam splitting means are provided. The corresponding prisms in both preferred embodiments have the same effect of dividing an incident light into a reference light beam and a measuring light beam, but the configuration and construction of the equivalent prisms of the two embodiments differ slightly in order to provide mutually perpendicular light paths for the divided light beams. Rotator means are provided between the beam splitting means and the bilateral reflecting optical means in one embodiment, between the beam splitting means and the retroreflecting optical means in another embodiment, and between the beam splitting means on the one hand and the bilateral reflecting optical means and retroreflecting optical means on the other hand in a further embodiment. The light paths traversing the bilateral reflecting optical means are common to those traversing the reference and measuring retroreflecting optical means.