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A Simple Ball Averager for Reference Sphere Calibrations

Published

Author(s)

Ulf Griesmann, Quandou (. Wang, Johannes A. Soons, Remi Carakos

Abstract

When measuring the form errors of precision optics with an interferometer, the calibration of the reference wavefront is of central importance.  Ball averaging, or random ball testing, has in recent years emerged as a robust method for calibrating spherical reference wavefronts in coverging beams.  We describe a simple instrument, consisting of an air bearing and two electric motors, that can rotate the test ball around three axes as required for a ball averaging test.  The performance of the instrument is demonstrated by isng it to calibrate a concave transmission sphere.  Further we discuss the effects of image sampling at random locations or on uniform grids, and the effect of correlated measurements due to partial image overlap.  Finally, we describe a method to determine the number of measurements which are sufficient for a ball averaging calibration.
Volume
5869
Conference Dates
July 31-August 4, 2005
Conference Location
San Diego, CA
Conference Title
SPIE Optics and Photonics 2005 Conference

Keywords

ball averaging test, Transmission sphere calibration

Citation

Griesmann, U. , Wang, Q. , Soons, J. and Carakos, R. (2005), A Simple Ball Averager for Reference Sphere Calibrations, SPIE Optics and Photonics 2005 Conference, San Diego, CA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=822303 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created January 1, 2005, Updated February 19, 2017