Date of Award

Summer 8-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Optical Engineering

Department

Department of Physics and Optical Engineering

First Advisor

Scott Kirkpatrick

Second Advisor

Charles Joenathan

Third Advisor

Ashley Bernal

Abstract

Currently there are many interferometers used for testing wavefront, measuring the quality of optical elements, and detecting refractive index changes in a certain medium. Each interferometer has been constructed for a specific objective. Inversion shear interferometer is one of them. Compared to other interferometers, it has its own advantages, such as only being sensitive to coma aberration, but it has some limitations as well. It does not allow use of phase shifting technique. A novel inversion shear interferometer was invented using holographic lenses. By using the spatial carrier method, phase information of the wavefront was extracted. The breakthrough of the novel technique includes real-time quantitative analysis of wavefront and high stability in turbulent conditions.

In this thesis, I discuss the operating principles for the new inversion shear interferometer, and discuss the process of quantitative analysis after integrating spatial Fourier transform analysis. I also present how to exploit the set of holographic lenses to setup the inversion shear system. The advantages and disadvantages of the novel inversion shear interferometer are summarized, and some solutions for improvement are also suggested.

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