Magazine Article

Optical Testing of Retroreflectors for Cryogenic Applications

TBMG-7157

02/01/2010

Abstract
Content

A laser tracker (LT) is an important coordinate metrology tool that uses laser interferometry to determine precise distances to objects, points, or surfaces defined by an optical reference, such as a retroreflector. A retroreflector is a precision optic consisting of three orthogonal faces that returns an incident laser beam nearly exactly parallel to the incident beam. Commercial retroreflectors are designed for operation at room temperature and are specified by the divergence, or beam deviation, of the returning laser beam, usually a few arcseconds or less. When a retroreflector goes to extreme cold (≈35 K), however, it could be anticipated that the precision alignment between the three faces and the surface figure of each face would be compromised, resulting in wavefront errors and beam divergence, degrading the accuracy of the LT position determination.

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Citation
"Optical Testing of Retroreflectors for Cryogenic Applications," Mobility Engineering, February 1, 2010.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Feb 1, 2010
Product Code
TBMG-7157
Content Type
Magazine Article
Language
English