MULTI-AXIS INTERFEROMETER WITH INTEGRATED OPTICAL STRUCTURE AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING RHOMBOID ASSEMBLY

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means for easily manufacturing rhomboid assembly for an optical system which is compact and has superior measuring stability. SOLUTION: The rhomboid assembly is manufactured by cutting glass plates. The glass plates are glued to each other by coating between the glass plates. The cuts are, for example, at an angle such as 45° and surfaces resulting from the cuts are finished to optical tolerances. These optical surfaces permit attachment of rhomboid assemblies directly to optical elements such as a polarizing beam-splitter (PBS) in a multi-axis interferometer. Further, elements such as quarter-wave plates, cube corner reflectors and rhomboid elements that extend the separation of measuring beams can be attached to the PBS to provide integrated beam optics that are compact and thermally stable. Placing a reflective coating or other reference reflector on a quarter-wave plate for the reference beam can keep the entire beam path for the reference beam within the integrated structure. COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT