Abstract

A low-cost technique is presented for constructing stitched Fizeau interferometric measurements of high-spherical-departure concave aspheres of arbitrary conic constant without the use of null optics. The optical test configuration assembles the surface figure of the asphere using subapertures parameterized as variances from best-fit paraboloids. Subtracting the optical path difference between each idealized paraboloid and the corresponding annulus of measured data removes the annular wavefront aberrations without the need to fit Zernike polynomials. The proof-of-concept measurement and reconstruction of a 250 mm diameter diamond-turned ellipsoidal mirror with more than 3000 waves of spherical departure are reported. The presented technique is an inexpensive addition to the array of tools used to measure large-aperture aspheres and high-departure freeform optics.

© 2019 Optical Society of America

Non-null annular subaperture stitching interferometry for steep aspheric measurement

Lei Zhang, Chao Tian, Dong Liu, Tu Shi, Yongying Yang, Hanshuo Wu, and Yibing Shen
Appl. Opt. 53(25) 5755-5762 (2014)

Subaperture testing of aspheres with annular zones

Ying-Moh Liu, George N. Lawrence, and Christ L. Koliopoulos
Appl. Opt. 27(21) 4504-4513 (1988)

Modified stitching algorithm for annular subaperture stitching interferometry for aspheric surfaces

Yongfu Wen, Haobo Cheng, Hon-Yuen Tam, and Dongmei Zhou
Appl. Opt. 52(23) 5686-5694 (2013)

Full-aperture wavefront reconstruction from annular subaperture interferometric data by use of Zernike annular polynomials and a matrix method for testing large aspheric surfaces

Xi Hou, Fan Wu, Li Yang, Shibin Wu, and Qiang Chen
Appl. Opt. 45(15) 3442-3455 (2006)

Aspheric subaperture stitching based on system modeling

Lei Zhang, Dong Liu, Tu Shi, Yongying Yang, Shiyao Chong, Baoliang Ge, Yibing Shen, and Jian Bai
Opt. Express 23(15) 19176-19188 (2015)