Shearing interferometer using low-coherent light source and calcite prism

A shearing interferometer using a low-coherent light source and calcite prism is proposed in this paper. The calcite prism is the shear plate that generates sheared wavefronts with optical-path difference induced only by the contour of the specimen. Low-coherent light source is thus available while the interferometer is adopted for contour derivative determinations. The design of this interferometer is introduced, a setup constructed to realize the interferometer is described, and the experimental results from the uses of the setup are finally presented.