A high sensitive roll angle interferometer

Abstract

A roll angle interferometer with high sensitivity is designed in this paper. Two sets of centrosymmetric beams are used to travel through the measurement and reference arms of the roll angle interferometer which contains two specific optical devices: wedge prism assembly and wedge mirror assembly. The optical path change in both arms caused by roll is converted into phase shift which can be measured by interferometer. Because of the adoption of the centrosymmetric measurement structure, the straightness errors, yaw error and pitch error can be avoided and the dead path is minimized, so that the stability and the accuracy of the measurement can be greatly enhanced. The resolution for the roll measurement is about 0.006″ with the measurement range of ±1°.