title: Heterodyne two beam Gaussian microscope interferometer.
abstract: We present a novel microscope interferometric technique based on the heterodinization of two Gaussian beams for measuring roughness of optical surfaces in microscopic areas. One of the beams is used as a probe beam, focussed and reflected by the surface under test. The second beam interferes with the first beam and introduces a time varying modulating signal. The modulating light beam is obtained from the first diffraction order of a Bragg cell. The two beams are superimposed and added coherently at the sensitive plane of a photodetector that integrates the overall intensity of the beams. We show analytically that it is possible to find appropriate working conditions in which the system has a linear response. Under these conditions, the size of the probe beam at the plane of detection as well as the amplitude of the time varying signal at the output of the photodetector, are both proportional to the local vertical height of the surface under test. As a narrow bandwidth amplifier is used to detect the time varying signal the system exhibits a high signal to noise ratio. We also include experimental results of the measurement of the topography of a sample consisting in a blazed-reflecting grating.
authors: J Mauricio
authors: JM
authors: Flores
authors: Moisés
authors: M
authors: Cywiak
authors: Manuel
authors: M
authors: Servín
authors: Lorenzo
authors: L
authors: Juárez P