Method of detecting origin of shear and measuring amount of shear in

Abstract

A method of measuring the origin and amount of a shear between a basic light beam and a reference light beam in a shearing interferometric system. To detect the shear origin, shutters are disposed respectively in the optical paths of the basic and reference light beams. The basic and reference light beams are guided through a condenser lens toward a four-segment light detector. First, the optical path of the reference light beam is closed to allow only the basic light beam to fall on the four-segment light detector. By adjusting the position of the light detector, the position of the basic light beam is identified. Then, the optical path of the basic light beam is closed to allow only the reference light beam to reach the light detector. While output signals from the light detector are being monitored, a shearing member is displaced to shift the reference light beam to detect the shear origin in which the reference and basic light beams are overlapped. To measure the shear amount, light of a plane wave is used as the basic light beam, and the basic and reference light beams caused by an imaging lens to fall on an area sensor are of plane wavefronts. An interference fringe pattern on the area sensor is measured by a fringe scanning process to determine an angle at which the wavefronts of the basic and reference light beams are inclined to each other. The shear amount is computed from the determined angle and the focal length of the imaging lens.