An application of the polarizing property of gratings in the 10 microns interferometry

Abstract

A new interferometer has been developed which can be used both for analysing the homogeneity of I. R. materials and for inspecting the wave-form emerging out from an optical system. This new type of interferometer utilises a diffraction grating as a beam divider and further permits an important variation in the fringe contrast to be obtained for a given blaze angle by the variation of the efficacity of the grating with the orientation of the plane of polarisation. This improvement permits the compensation of photometric losses due either to an absorbing material or due to a highly reflecting material, that may be under test. By this way it is possible to evaluate all materials within a transmission range from 10% to 100%. This interferometer functions at 10.6?m. Results obtained are detailed here in.