Measurement of surface figure of plane optical surfaces with polarization phase-shifting Fizeau interferometer

A Fizeau interferometer based set up for measurement of surface forms of plane optical surfaces has been discussed. Phase shifting interferometry has been applied using polarization phase shifter. A linearly polarized (632.8 nm) He–Ne laser has been used as the source. Light reflected from the object and the reference/master surfaces are made circularly polarized in opposite senses by means of two properly oriented quarter wave retardation plates placed at appropriate positions, one inside and other outside the interference cavity of the interferometer, and phase shifts are introduced between the object and the reference/master waves by varying angular orientation of a polarizer/analyzer. Final result is made free from any residual wave-front aberrations introduced by the (intra-cavity) wave plate by subtracting phase values obtained by PSI technique between a high optical quality master surface and the reference surface from that obtained for the test object surface with respect to the same reference surface for each point of the interference field. Results are shown for a plane surface.Advantages of the technique presented are linearity and high accuracy in phase stepping, no perturbation of the interference cavity during the phase shifting and possibility of real time or dynamic interferometry.