Comparison of sensitivity to beam collimation of the holographic shearing interferometer with the wedge plate shearing interferometer and the Talbot shearing interferometer

High sensitivity of collimation testing equipment is desirable where collimated beams are used for precise and accurate measurements. Precision in the setting of collimation depends on the sensitivity of the testing equipment. In the present work, sensitivity to beam collimation of the recently reported holographic shearing interferometer (HSI) [J. Opt. 20, 055603 (2018)] is measured and compared with sensitivities of other collimation testing techniques based on the wedge plate shearing interferometer and the Talbot shearing interferometer. For a test beam of diameter 25 mm from an He-Ne laser and displacement of the collimating lens by 1 mm from the collimation position, the Talbot shearing interferometer shows a rotation of interference fringes from the horizontal direction by 2 degrees, the wedge plate shearing interferometer shows 20 degrees, and the HSI shows 25 degrees. Sensitivity is also presented in terms of measured slopes of phase maps of the recorded interferograms for a 1 mm displacement of the collimating lens and is obtained as 0.98 mrad, 15 mrad, and 19 mrad corresponding to the Talbot shearing interferometer, the wedge plate shearing interferometer, and HSI, respectively. The effect of decollimation of the laser beam on the interference fringes of diffraction of the Lloyd mirror interferometer is also demonstrated. Theoretical concepts and experimental results are presented and discussed for the above-mentioned beam collimation testing techniques. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America