Abstract

The goal of this paper was to modernize and computerize an interferometer with a diffraction grating based on the Ronchi setup. The advantages of the interferometer are as follows: simplicity and reliability, insensitivity to vibrations, the possibility of using a nonlaser source with white-light illumination or light with discrimination of any wavelength (with monitoring of chromatism), and the absence of an optical reference surface. For the computer processing of interferograms obtained on a diffraction interferometer with a grating, program TIGER was developed, making it possible to automatically interpret the interference fringes and to calculate the wave-front deformation and the image-quality characteristics of the optical system, such as the point-spread function, the line-spread function, and the modulation-transfer function or frequency-contrast response.

© 2009 Optical Society of America

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