Shear plate interferometer suitable for laser collimation
Qioptiq
Shear Plate Interferometer
Qioptiq has launched a shear plate interferometer that, it claims, delivers consistent laser collimation results, including under unfavourable ambient conditions.
Qioptiq’s shear plate interferometers are based on the principle of super-imposing a wave front on itself.
Wedge-shaped shear plates are used to check the collimation of a laser light beam.
In the case of a perfectly collimated light beam, a smooth wave front is incident on the wedge plate and parallel interference fringes perpendicular to the wedge are formed. This is indicated by a reference band on the observation plane. With this technique, expansion systems can be adjusted for reproducible collimation.
When expanded laser beams are used in a laboratory, the quality of the laser beam collimation can be crucial for the application; in particular, when collimated laser light serves as a solid measure. Collimation can be measured using applicable metrology tools, such as a sensor.
A prototype of the Shear Plate Interferometer has already been used at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen, where it was employed in the Nano-Biophotonics Department for measurement tasks in connection with 4Pi microscopy.
Key features
- Available in three different models, each optimised for a different beam-diameter range between 1mm and 25mm
- Designed with flexible mounting options for trouble-free integration in highly individual optical assemblies
- With a beam diameter of 25mm, collimation can be determined with a precision of 50µrad
- Three models to provide immediate results for beam diameters of 1mm to 25mm in Vis-NIR spectra
- Determination of wave front radius of curvature opens up a wide range of application areas
- Adapter plates available for a broad variety of assembly options
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