Dark-field line confocal imaging with point confocality and extended line field for bulk defects detection

Fabrication of high-quality optics puts a strong demand on high-throughput detection of macroscopic bulk defects in optical components. A dark-field line confocal imaging method is proposed with two distinct advantages: (i) a point-to-line confocal scheme formed by a columnar elliptical mirror and an optical fiber bundle breaks through the constraint on light collection angle and field of view in the traditional line confocal microscopy using an objective, allowing for an extended confocal line field of more than 100 mm while maintaining a light collection angle of 27 degrees; (ii) the bulk defects are independently illuminated as a function of time to eliminate the cross talk in the direction of the confocal slit, thus preserving point confocality and showing the optical section thicknesses to be 162 mu m in the axial direction, and 19 and 22 mu m in the orthogonal transverse directions. The experimental results verify that the method has a minimum detectable bulk defect of less than 5 mu m and an imaging efficiency of 400 mm(2)/s. The method shows great potential in high-throughput and highsensitivity bulk defects detection.