Subaperture stitching testing of an aspherical surface

For the purpose to test large and off-axis aspheric surfaces without the aid of other null optics, a novel method combined subaperture stitching and interferometry is introduced. The basic principle and theory of the technique are researched, the synthetical optimization stitching mode and effective stitching algorithm are established based on homogeneous coordinates transformation and simultaneous least-squares fitting. The software of SSI is devised, and the prototype for testing of large aspheres by SSI is designed and developed. The experiment is carried on with three subapertures for an off-axis sic aspheric mirror with a clear aperture of 230×141 (mm). For the compare and validation, the asphere is also tested by null compensation, the synthesized surface map is consistent to the entire surface map from the null test, the differences of PV and RMS error are 0.023λ and 0.014λ, respectively; and the relative errors of PV and RMS are 0.57% and 2.74%, respectively .The results conclude that this technique is feasible and accurate. It enables the non-null testing of parts with greater asphericity and larger aperture.