Fiber reference misalignment induced error in cylindrical wave interferometry.

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of fiber reference misalignment induced error in a cylindrical wave test. As with any reference surface, misalignment aberrations are introduced into the measurement when the fiber reference is not perfectly aligned. Given the unique and unusual 1-dimensional filtering properties of the fiber reference, an empirical test was necessary to determine what the actual misalignment sensitivities are. The experimental results and analysis show that the 1-D filtering of the fiber does not affect the misalignment sensitivities. Also, the misalignment sensitivities are smaller, by a factor of two, than values previously reported for cylindrical test misalignment sensitivities. The sensitivities presented in this paper can be used to correctly realign a misaligned fiber reference in the lab.