Speckle pattern interferometer
OwnerJames M. Rowe, Rudolph W. Modsterinventors
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Abstract
A speckle pattern interferometer for use in the non-destructive testing of structures employs a laser beam which is split into reference and object beams having substantially the same optical path lengths to the screen of a sensor, such as a vidicon, where the two beams are combined. The object beam is reflected from the surface of an object under investigation, this object being vibrated periodically. The reference beam passes through an optical fiber cut to the proper length to equalize the length of the reference beam path with that of the object beam. The output of the vidicon is fed to an electronic processor where the signals are appropriately processed to provide a speckle pattern display on a monitor viewing screen.
Claims5
In a speckle pattern interferometer for testing an object, including means for generating a coherent light beam, means for splitting said beam into reference and object beams, means for directing said object beam towards said object, means for cyclically displacing said object, said object beam being reflected from said object along a predetermined optical axis, means for recombining the object and reference beams, means for detecting the recombined object and reference beams, means for processing the combined beams, and means for displaying the combined beams, the improvement being means for channeling the reference beam from the beam splitting means to the recombining means along an optical path equal in length to that of said object beam between the beam splitting means and the recombining means comprising
- an optical fiber having one end thereof positioned to receive the reference beam from said beam splitting means, said fiber running to a point whereat the other end thereof is directly opposite said detecting means, said fiber directing the object beam towards said detecting means along said predetermined axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.