Investigation of spectral interferometry for refractive index measurement and for lens aberrations characterization

An analytical description of the optical phenomena occurring in a spectral interferometric experiment is achieved in this paper. This complete modelling is based on Fourier formalism. Each part of the experimental device is studied in order to establish its temporal and spectral contribution to the output signal. This theoretical investigation of each spectral interferometer element leads to a brief discussion about experimental limitations of the whole system. From this theoretical investigation, interferograms are computed in order to extract data for refractive index determination along one line of the object. Finally, experimental results are shown in order to characterize lens aberrations.