Novel wedge plate beam tester

A novel beam tester based on a single wedge plate shearing interference using a two-time rotatable method described by Xu and Rosenbruch in 1991 is developed. It is used primarily to test laser beam collimation and divergence and the defocusing of collimator, beam expander, and telescope systems. It also is used to test laser wavefront aberrations and parameters and to adjust optical systems. We briefly introduce the tester's basic principles, capabilities, features, and present an accuracy analyses of the tester.