Continuous lateral shearing interferometer

Abstract

A simple lateral shearing interferometer based on the use of gratings is discussed, which facilitates the display of the spatial complex degree of coherence (CDC). A first version consisting of two identical gratings inclined relative to each other was used to demonstrate the working principle. For this purpose partially coherent light was used which was generated by imaging different object distributions on a rotating scatterer (e.g., double-slit or linear grid patterns). Furthermore, an achromatic lateral shearing interferometer based on the use of three gratings in a series arrangement is discussed and a theoretical proof for the achromatism of this arrangement is given.