Abstract
This paper describes a single-axis ultra-high-precision translation stage designed and built using almost exclusively the very-low-thermal-expansion ceramic Zerodur. The device is a test-bed for design principles which may be widely applied for various purposes of different precision. It has compensation for pitch, roll and yaw built into the mechanism through the incorporation of three angular sub-stages. The sliding carriage stands on five PTFE pads to form a single-degree-of-freedom kinematic constraint giving rectilinear traverse along an optically flat prism. The translation resolution is at the ångstrom level and the angular adjustments are at the sub-arc-second level, with some at the milli-arc-second level, while possessing coarse adjustments with large range. Performance tests using an optical interferometer are reported and the stage's behaviour in the elastic and sliding region is studied to understand where the limits of the technology lie.
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