Optical testing of cylindrical surfaces with computer-generated holograms

Increasing demands for highly accurate cylinders require more high-precision testing techniques. The existing methods of testing cylindrical surfaces can not ensure the highly-accuracy, efficiency, convenience and the overall cost. In order to acquire highly accurate cylindrical surfaces conveniently at a low cost, a new Fizeau interferometric optical testing utilizing CGH which is fabricated onto a wedge-shaped substrate is designed. In this test, a slit filter is placed in the center of the cylindrical curvature to filter out the undesired diffraction orders which occur when the beam hits the CGH. Meanwhile, the front side of the wedge-shaped substrate is as the reference flat, and the CGH is written onto the inclined surface, so that the real fringe pattern can not be affected by its reflected beam. Moreover, the design of cylindrical surfaces under test tilting and off-center relative to the diffraction surface of the CGH results that the required rays for interference can be obtained effectively from the pinhole filter in the interferometer. Furthermore, high-accuracy CGH in this test can be processed by conventional microlithography equipments. Corresponding to a cylindrical surface with 60mm in diameter and f-number of 1/7, the test has been successfully designed and optimized in Zemax whose testing accuracy is prior to 0.0019 lambda. Better interference pattern can be obtained because all the other disturbing rays image outside of aperture in a radius of 2mm. Experiment shows the method is efficient and predominant.