Absolute calibration in grazing incidence interferometry via rotational averaging

Interferometry in grazing incidence can be used to test cylindrical mantle surfaces. The absolute accuracy of the resulting surface profiles is limited by systematic wavefront aberrations caused in the interferometer, in particular due to an inversion of the test wavefront in an interferometer using diffractive beam splitters. For cylindrical specimens, a calibration method using four positions has therefore been investigated. This test is combined with another method of optical metrology: the rotational averaging procedure. The implementation for grazing incidence is described and measurement results for hollow cylinders are presented. The gain in accuracy is demonstrated.