OTI – Optical system design analysis of precision instrumentation

OTI developed a prototype Twyman-Green interferometer with a large aperture and broadband light source to measure thin flat glass samples. The instrument performance was limited by the optical design and OTI sought expertise and resources from CPE to model and improve this.

The CPE collaboration involved optical modelling of the existing prototype instrument, using Zemax OpticStudio®, to identify areas causing performance limitations.

The instrumentation design was successfully improved without unduly increasing complexity and by using readily sourced catalogue optics where possible.

Intrinsic design errors were reduced by factor >25, and to less than λ/20 (P-V: Peak to Valley) by the addition of three off-the-shelf optical elements.