Measurement and analysis of the stepwise curved surface of diffractive optical elements by a constant speed confocal probe

Abstract

Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) play an important role in improving imaging quality and reducing system volume. The measurement of DOE surface topography is of great significance to the evaluation of DOE quality and the optimization of its manufacturing process. However, there are still some difficulties in measuring the large curvature and the large sag of curve-based DOEs. In this paper, considering the geometrical feature information and measurement problems of curve-based DOEs, a measurement method based on a confocal measurement principle for DOE measurement is proposed. The proposed measurement data processing method is verified by a high-precision motion axis system and the stability of an ultra-precision lathe. The results show that the proposed measurement method can reconstruct and accurately evaluate the three-dimensional surface topography of DOEs.