Accurate and highly resolving quadri-wave lateral shearing interferometer, from visible to IR

A powerful and achromatic interferometric technique based on recent advances in the technology of non-diffracting arrays is used to evaluate wave-front distortions with a high transverse resolution and an easily tunable dynamic range. The device presented here belongs to the family of Multiple Wave Lateral Shearing Interferometers (MWLSI) and has the natural capability to measure simultaneously four wave-front derivatives. In this communication, we propose to exploit all the information de facto included in the interferogram; in this perspective we suggest a new method of reconstruction of the wave-front knowing its derivatives. We will show that our device is already successful in the field of laser metrology in the near infrared domain and that it is promising for the far infrared domain with the presentation of a prototype dedicated to measurements at 10.6μm.