Risley prisms to control wave-front tilt and displacement in a vectorial shearing interferometer

A pair of thin prisms is used to deviate a light beam without changing the image orientation in a vectorial shearing interferometer. The relative angle between prisms determines the displacement of the wave front and its tilt. The direction of the beam displacement is controlled by means of changing the relative angle between prisms. This system is employed to control the displacement of a sheared wave front as a vector quantity and to introduce a controlled amount of tilt in what we believe is a novel interferometric shearing system. The predicted performance of this wave-front director is confirmed experimentally. © 2002 Optical Society of America.