Interferometer light source

Abstract

A low coherent noise interferometer system incorporates an improved low spatial coherence source obtained from a laser light source which supplies a beam of light through a beam-shaping lens to the first one of a set of two cascaded diffusers. One of the diffusers is dynamically changing, provided by a rotating ground glass disk. The diffusers then supply light to an interferometer of a two-beam interferometer configuration, such as Fizeau, Twyman-Green or Mach-Zehnder. In one embodiment, the first diffuser is the rotating ground glass diffuser and the second diffuser is a multi-mode optical fiber. The exit face of the fiber represents the spatially incoherent extended light source for the interferometer. The laser, the motor for driving the first diffuser and the diffusers themselves all are mounted on a separate base from the base on which the interferometer is mounted.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.