Based on a special polarizing beam-splitter (SPBS) developed, two new polarization phase shifting Newton interferometers are proposed for plane optical surface measurements in this thesis. The first one is composed of a polarizer, the SPBS, a sample in contact with the special SPBS, a broadband quarter-wave plate, an analyzer, and a CCD camera. After the SPBS splits the incident beam for passing through the polarizer into a S-beam and a P-beam, the SPBS and sample further reflect these two beams to pass through the quarter-wave plate and analyzer to generate a Newton interference pattern on the CCD camera, and a rotation of the polarization gives the interference pattern a phase shift equal to double of the rotation. A setup was constructed to realize the interferometer. The experimental results are obtained and proved to validate the feasibility of the development. The second interferometer is almost the same as the first one, except that the gap between the SPBS and sample is enlarged and there is a Savart phase compensation module placed in front of the polarizer. The compensation module is employed to compensate the phase lag of the P-beam due to the gap enlargement. And both the designs of the compensation module and gap enlargement are capable of removing the error due to polarization leaking of the SPBS. A setup of the second interferometer was also installed. The experimental results have confirmed the capability of the proposed method in minimizing measured errors caused by the polarization leaking problem.
Based on a special polarizing beam-splitter (SPBS) developed, two new polarization phase shifting Newton interferometers are proposed for plane optical surface measurements in this thesis. The first one is composed of a polarizer, the SPBS, a sample in contact with the special SPBS, a broadband quarter-wave plate, an analyzer, and a CCD camera. After the SPBS splits the incident beam for passing through the polarizer into a S-beam and a P-beam, the SPBS and sample further reflect these two beams to pass through the quarter-wave plate and analyzer to generate a Newton interference pattern on the CCD camera, and a rotation of the polarization gives the interference pattern a phase shift equal to double of the rotation. A setup was constructed to realize the interferometer. The experimental results are obtained and proved to validate the feasibility of the development. The second interferometer is almost the same as the first one, except that the gap between the SPBS and sample is enlarged and there is a Savart phase compensation module placed in front of the polarizer. The compensation module is employed to compensate the phase lag of the P-beam due to the gap enlargement. And both the designs of the compensation module and gap enlargement are capable of removing the error due to polarization leaking of the SPBS. A setup of the second interferometer was also installed. The experimental results have confirmed the capability of the proposed method in minimizing measured errors caused by the polarization leaking problem.