Body including surface having concentric annular portions

Abstract

A confocal inspection system can analyze light collected from a sample. For absorptive samples, it can be desirable to bin the collected light as a function of optical path length traversed in the sample. To perform this binning, the optical system can direct the collected light to a body having a surface that includes concentric annular portions that impart unique non-focusing angular redirections to respective portions of the collected light. In some examples, the annular portions are planar and have respective surface normals that are uniquely angled with respect to one another. In other examples, the annular portions are planar and parallel, and include respective zero-power, blazed diffraction gratings having unique combinations of blaze angle and blaze orientation with respect to one another. Light from each annular portion can be focused onto a respective lateral location at a detector plane.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.