Multiwavelength digital holography with meter scale synthetic wavelengths at micrometer precision

Abstract

Digital holography enables high-precision quality control in machining production and has already been introduced to several multi-axis systems1, 2. To meet the demanding measurement tasks in the quality control of complex components, accuracies in the sub-micrometer range with measurement ranges larger than several centimeters are required. Previous measurements have shown the potential of multiwavelength digital holography to allow unambiguous ranges of few millimeters3 . We present multiwavelength digital holographic measurements using synthetic wavelengths with two meters down to a few micrometers, potentially enabling measurements with meter-scale unambiguity at sub-micrometer accuracy. Measurements on a 10 cm step-height sample have been conducted using the compact digital-holographic sensor HoloTop NX for various multi-axis systems, supplied by an Ondax LMFC single frequency diode laser at 632.852 nm and the tunable laser Hübner C-Wave used in the wavelength range of 480.786 nm – 632.852 nm. The latter offers a frequency stability of 150 MHz on a time scale of several hours. The maximum laser drift during data acquisition was observed to be 0.02 pm. Thus, at the 2 m synthetic wavelength, this results in a maximum synthetic wavelength error of 200 mm. Random noise of 20 mm at the largest used synthetic wavelength of 2 m requires multiple synthetic wavelengths to get down to micrometer precision: Eight nested synthetic wavelengths from 2 µm to 2 m and numerical refocusing of the hologram were used to evaluate a milled sample with multiple step heights, machined on a Hermle C32U machine tool. Ten repetitive measurements confirm a machining uncertainty of 9 µm for this sample at its maximum step height of 10 cm.