Mid-infrared autocollimation for linear motion error measurement

Abstract It is known that linear motion errors for linear guides can be measured by the autocollimation method. In this case, it is necessary to install a mirror on the measurement target. On the other hand, if a light with a wavelength sufficiently longer than that of the surface roughness of the measurement target is used, the need for a mirror is eliminated. We have proposed an autocollimation method using a mid-infrared laser. In the original prototype of mid-infrared autocollimator, the angle of laser irradiation is 45° to the measurement target. However, this method does not allow us to obtain a long measurement range. Therefore, we construct a system in which the laser irradiation angle is set to 0° by controlling the polarization of light. By using this method, autocollimation is applied to a sample with a root mean square roughness Rq of 0.2 μm, and an angular resolution of 1.1 arc-second is obtained.