Self-referenced interferometer for cylindrical surfaces

Appl Opt. 2015 Nov 20;54(33):9930-8. doi: 10.1364/AO.54.009930.

Abstract

We present a new interferometric method for shape measurement of hollow cylindrical tubes. We propose a simple and robust self-referenced interferometer where the reference and object waves are represented by the central and peripheral parts, respectively, of the conical wave generated by a single axicon lens. The interferogram detected by a digital camera is characterized by a closed-fringe pattern with a circular carrier. The interference phase is demodulated using spatial synchronous detection. The capabilities of the interferometer are experimentally tested for various hollow cylindrical tubes with lengths up to 600 mm.