A novel electronically scanned white-light interferometer using a Mach-Zehnder approach

A theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation of a novel Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), used as a recovery interferometer in an electronically scanned white-light interferometer is reported. This modified version of a MZI has the advantages of being very simple and compact, with high stability and does not introduce any spatial "misoverlapping" of the beams. In addition, since only one beamsplitter is employed in the interferometer (instead of the usual two used in a conventional MZI), the system is relatively easy to implement and at low cost. Furthermore, this configuration can be simply set to cover a wide range of optical path difference values by simply changing the angle and position of one of the mirrors. This gives the interferometer the advantage of being easily adapted far a range of different measurement applications.