Phase topography-based characterization of thermal effects on materials and joining techniques.

There are growing demands to characterize the stability of assemblies of optical components for ultrahigh-precision instruments. In this paper we demonstrate how absolute length measurements by interferometry can be applied to measure the thermal and dimensional stability of connections. In order to enable investigation of common joining techniques, including wringing, screwing, and gluing, as well as specialized, inorganic joining techniques such as silicatic bonding, thin-film soldering, and solderjet bumping, representative connections were fabricated. By using gage blocks or prismatic bodies as joining parts, parallelism and flatness were provided which are needed for precision interferometric length measurements. The stability of connection elements used in ultrahigh-precision instruments was investigated longitudinally and laterally to the connection interface, and also mutual tilting of the parts was detected by analysis of the phase topographies. The measurements have an accuracy level of about 1 nm, and the traditional wringing method was also considered as a reference joining technique. The long-term behavior was studied within a period of about 1 year under constant temperature. Further, the thermal dilatation and the reaction of connections to thermal stress were measured. Results show that screwed connections do not exhibit a significant drift of length or orientation. They also did not show response to temperature variations of ±10°C. This is different for adhesive connections, where dimensional changes of up to 100 nm were observed. The specimens produced by using thin-film soldering as well as silicatic bonding revealed stability of length better than 5 nm per year and angular stability within ±0.1 arcsec. Furthermore, these specimens were shown to be insensitive to a temporary temperature variation in a range from 10°C to 40°C. This situation is slightly different for the sample connections produced by solderjet bumping, which show a positive length change of ∼25 nm and a tilt of ∼1 arcsec. These observations can be explained by creeping of the relatively large solder bumps that bridge a gap of about 100 µm between the connected mirror plates. The thermal expansion of the connections shows a strong correlation with the "layer thickness."

Compensation of wavelength dependent image shifts in imaging optical interferometry.

In modern interferometers for absolute length measurements, when applying phase stepping interferometry, several different wavelengths are used as light sources, and the interferogram is projected to a CCD-camera array. Such interferometers are equipped with wedged optical components as windows and beam splitters, to prevent additional interferences. The wedged optics causes the position of a test piece within the interferogram related to the camera pixel coordinates to be dependent on the wavelength used. This effect depends on the wedge angles and the thicknesses of optical components as well as on their distances within the interferometer's optical pathway. We give a quantitative analysis and suggest a compensation of this dispersion effect by an additional wedge plate outside the interferometer.

High-accuracy determination of water vapor refractivity by length interferometry.

Humidity is the most problematic parameter for the accurate determination of the refractive index of air. Besides the fact that the humidity measurement can be limiting, the existing empirical equations for the refractive index of moist air are either restricted to 20 degrees C or are based on insufficient knowledge of the refractivity of water vapor. To overcome this problem, a new kind of measurement method for the refractivity of water vapor is suggested that is based on the accurate measurement of the absolute length of a step length by interferometry under vacuum conditions and subsequent measurements at different well-defined absolute water vapor pressures.

Highest-accuracy interferometer alignment by retroreflection scanning.

One important prerequisite for interferometric length measurements of high accuracy is autocollimation adjustment. This guarantees that the direction of the length scale represented by light waves is parallel to the length direction of the object investigated. First we describe the conventional visual autocollimation adjustment method used at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt since the beginning of interferometric length measurements. Then a new autocollimation method based on scanning the retroreflection from the interferometer is described. Check measurements are performed in order to investigate the quality of the adjustment. As a result of the method applied the uncertainty contribution originating from the cosine error could be reduced drastically for the interferometer used.

Phase-stepping interferometry: methods for reducing errors caused by camera nonlinearities.

Phase errors that arise in phase-stepping interferometry are discussed. Investigations were performed by use of a Twyman-Green interferometer equipped with a compensation plate with a variable and servo-controlled tilt angle. With this instrument, phase-stepping errors can be reduced to a negligible level. There are, however, phase errors that are caused by camera nonlinearities. Two methods for minimizing these errors are presented. The first method is based on the simple idea that the interference intensity at the output of a two-beam interferometer has an exact cosine shape. The camera signals were monitored as a function of the tilt angle of the compensation plate, and the deviation from the cosine form was used to produce a correction. The second method is based on the idea that, under specific conditions, errors of an average of two phase measurements may compensate for each other. Numerical calculations were performed and give evidence of this hypothesis. Each method, the signal-correction and the averaging method, drastically reduces errors in evaluation of phases. The combination of both methods is a powerful tool that allows precise phase data to be obtained with an uncertainty, in the range lambda/2000 approximately 0.3 nm, that is caused mainly by signal noise.

Assignment of spectral substructures to pigment-binding sites in higher plant light-harvesting complex LHC-II.

The trimeric main light-harvesting complex (LHC-II) is the only antenna complex of higher plants of which a high-resolution 3D structure has been obtained (Kühlbrandt, W., Wang, D., and Fujiyoshi, Y. (1994) Nature 367, 614-621) and which can be refolded in vitro from its components. Four different recombinant forms of LHC-II, each with a specific chlorophyll (Chl) binding site removed by site-directed mutagenesis, were refolded from heterologously overexpressed apoprotein, purified pigments, and lipid. Absorption spectra of mutant LHC-II were measured in the temperature range from 4 to 300 K and compared to likewise refolded wild-type complex and to native LHC-II isolated from pea chloroplasts. Chls at different binding sites have characteristic, well-defined absorption sub-bands. Mixed occupation of binding sites with Chls a and b is not observed. Temperature-dependent changes of the mutant absorption spectra reveal a consistent shift of the major difference bands but an irregular behavior of minor bands. A model of the spectral substructure of LHC-II is proposed which accounts for the different absorption properties of the 12 individual Chls in the complex, thus establishing a first consistent correlation between the 3D structure of LHC-II and its spectral properties. The spectral substructure is valid for recombinant and native LHC-II, indicating that both have the same spatial arrangement of Chls and that the refolded complex is fully functional.