High-Speed, Mode-Hop Insensitive SCI Source for Low Coherence Wavefront Probe for Nanometer Level Free-Form Metrology

Free-form optics promise improved optical system performance in all areas of imaging and illumination optics. Metrology tools with sufficient accuracy nbsp;and manufacturing throughputs are limiting the adoption of free-form optics and their advantages, including meeting NASArsquo;s goal of free-form X-Ray optics. The low coherence probe has demonstrated the potential to provide the metrology required but in order to increase the effective data rate new sources are desired. In this proposal we address this problem by introducing a new, mode hop insensitive source which would increase the acquisition rate by three orders of magnitude and simultaneously lower the cost. A free-form probe equipped with this new generation of sources would be able to effectively compete with full field interferometry at the same time bypassing a lot of its disadvantages.