W-shaped common-path interferometer.

Abstract

We present a novel static W-shaped common-path interferometer. In particular, the W-shaped common-path corner-cube retroreflector interferometer (W-CPRI) is introduced via detailed analysis of its working principles and performance. It comprises two corner-cube retroreflectors (CCRs), a reflecting mirror (RM), and a beam splitter. For each interference output of an ideal W-CPRI, the two beams recombine and have the same output direction, including a tilted CCR. In a deformed W-CPRI structure, an optical path difference can be produced by inserting an optical element that changes the optical path in the interferometer arm of the W-CPRI. The posture deviations of the RM and the CCRs in the W-CPRI are analyzed. In addition, a proof-of-concept experiment is conducted, with the stability analyzed using the fringe similarity method. The average cosine similarity is 0.9953, revealing that this W-CPRI has high stability and strong coherence while avoiding the tilt and displacement of the interferometer arm.