Correcting for stage error motions in radius measurements.

Traceable radius of curvature measurements are critical for precision optics manufacturing. An optical bench measurement is repeatable and is the preferred method for low-uncertainty applications. With an optical bench, the displacement of the optic is measured as it is moved between the cat's eye and the confocal positions, each identified using a figure measuring interferometer. The translated distance is nominally the radius of curvature; however, errors in the motion of the stage add a bias to the measurement, even if the error motions are zero on average. Estimating the bias and resulting measurement uncertainty is challenging. We have developed a new mathematical definition of the radius measurand that intrinsically corrects for error motion biases and also provides a means of representing other terms such as figure error-correction, wave-front aberration biases, displacement gauge calibration and their uncertainties. With this formalism, it is no long necessary to design a high-quality radius bench to carry out a precision measurement; rather a lower quality is adequate, provided that error motions are repeatable and characterized and error motion measurement uncertainties are estimated.