Real-time surface profile measurement using a feedback type of sinusoidal phase modulating interferometer

In this paper, we propose a sinusoidal phase modulating (SPM) interferometer that is insensitive to external disturbances, and its measuring principle is analyzed theoretically. In the SPM interferometer, the interference signal is detected by a high-speed image sensor based on a low-speed CCD and a signal processing circuit is used to obtain the phase of each point on the surface. Therefore, the surface profile can be measured real-time. The experiments measuring the surface profile of a wedge-shaped optical flat show that the measurement time of the SPM interferometer is less than 10 ms, the repetitive measurement accuracy is 4.2 nm. The results show that the impacts of nonlinear distortion of the piezoelectric transducer (PZT) and part external disturbance are removed.