Green laser interferometric metrology system with sub-nanometer periodic nonlinearity.

This paper describes the design and realization of a heterodyne laser interferometer system that is applicable to metrology comparison. In this research, an iodine-stabilized Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm served as the light source. Two spatially separated beams with different offset frequencies are generated by two acousto-optic modulators to prevent any source mixing and polarization leakage. The interferometry components are integrated to a monolithic prism to reduce the difficulty of the light path adjustment and to guarantee the measuring accuracy. The experimental results show there is a sub-nanometer periodic nonlinearity, which mainly results from the ghost reflection. Placed in a vacuum chamber, the interferometer is applicable for measuring comparison using a piezo nanopositioner and a precision translation stage. Finally, a commercial interferometer is calibrated with the interferometer system.