Large aspheric mirrors with diameter over 300 millimeters with high surface accuracy are wildly used in many areas such as astronomical telescopes. Interferometers are widely used in profile measurement of optical flat and sphere. However, standard reference aspheric surface which is necessary for this method is difficult to make. Scanning defletometry based on ESAD (Extended Shear Angle Difference) is used to measure ultra-precise large near-flat and slight curved optical surface with the accuracy of sub-nanometer. However, it is not possible for it to measure aspheric surface because of the limitation of the measuring range of autocollimators. We proposed a new measuring method to scan the surface of a large aspheric optical surface using autocollimator with rotatable optical devices fixed on linear motion stage. To eliminate the influence of the pitching error of the scanning stage, we use two mirrors reflecting laser comes from autocollimator, which have the same effect with a pentaprism used in ESAD. To enlarge the measuring range of the autocollimator, we use a rotatable mirror to fit the changes of the slope of the mirror surface under measurement. The error analysis of the method is done. Measurement of an optical flat mirror and a sphere mirror with diameter of 50 mm and biggest slope of 6000 arc-second are done. The rotatable optical devices that we designed are proved effective on eliminating the pitching error of the moving stage.
Fringe interpreting for aspheric surface testing.
