Single Beam Interferometer - HP 5501A Operating And Service Manual

REFERENCE
A
10702A
LINEAR INTERFEROMETER
10703A
RETROREFLECTOR
Figure 2-72. Linear Interferometer Laser Beam Path
2.13 10705A SINGLE BEAM INTERFEROMETER AND 10704A RETROREFLECTOR (Figure
2-73). A single beam interferometer is so called because the outgoing and returning beam are
superimposed on each other giving the appearance of only one beam traveling between the
interferometer and the retroreflector. This interferometer operates the same a s the standard
interferometer functionally but it
is
advantageous when space for optics and beam paths i s
at a premium. The retroreflector is again a cube corner but it is considerably smaller than the
standard cube corner and the interferometer is smaller than the standard interferometer.
One significant difference is that the receiver in this case is mounted at right angles to the
measurement beam and the interferometer cannot
be
moved. A diagram of this type of inter-
ferometer is shown in Figure 2-74.
Figure 2-73. 70705A Single Beam
Interferometer
and 70704A Retrureflector