Optics Communications 250 (2005) 1015 www.elsevier.

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Self-imaging pitch variation applied to focal length digital measurements

Myrian Tebaldi a,*, Gustavo Forte a, Roberto Torroba a, stor Bolognini a,b, Alberto Tagliaferri c Ne
a

pticas, CIOp (CONICET, CIC) and OPTIMO, Departamento de Fisicomatema tica, Facultad de Centro de Investigaciones O a, UNLP, P.O. Box 124, 1900 Gonnet La Plata, Argentina Ingenier b Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, UNLP, P.O. Box 124, 1900, Gonnet La Plata, Argentina c nica Qua ntica, Instituto de F sica, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Departamento de Eletro Received 4 November 2004; received in revised form 2 February 2005; accepted 3 February 2005

Abstract Several approaches were developed in the literature for focal length measurements. In our experimental arrangement, a collimated laser beam illuminates a test lens with a Ronchi grating placed against this lens. This procedure gives rise to a series of classical Talbot images, although magnied due to the non-parallel illumination. In this conguration, we propose to relate the self-images positions and pitches to obtain the focal length. We designed a software that helps rst to precisely focus each self-image plane by a best-contrast algorithm and then to take an intensity histogram along a direction perpendicular to the grating lines. A theoretical explanation, experimental results and error analysis are presented. 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 42.30.Va; 42.87.d Keywords: Self-image; Focal length measurements

1. Introduction Several approaches were designed for measuring the focal length of a lens. We can nd traditional methods, such as Bessels image formation [1], limited by the object-plane to image distance that is at least 4 f, and the nodal slide bench [2].

Corresponding author. Tel.: +54 221 4840280; fax: +54 221 4712771. E-mail address: myrianc@ciop.unlp.edu.ar (M. Tebaldi).

0030-4018/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2005.02.012

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Practical improvements with analog methods arose, as those making use of Talbot interferometry [35], having accuracy of the order of 2%. was also employed as reference to evaluate Moire the eective focal length of a test lens and accuracy of the order of 4% has been reported [6]. Higher precision analog methods based on fringe counting techniques; such as deectometry [7] give errors of the order of 0.01%. Optical metrology with digital techniques was also employed for focal length measurements. fringes obThe use of digitally generated Moire tained by a reective diraction grating in an interferometer was also reported [8], along with an improvement that yields an accuracy of 0.1%. It still employs interferometric fringes but the pitch of the fringes is measured when the lens under test images them. Digitally generated speckle correlation fringes were also used [9], where a plane wavefront emerging from the test lens is rotated to produce such fringes. For a given rotation, the focal length is codied in the spatial frequency of the fringes with relative errors of around 2%. Also, digital interferometers were used to this end. A recent development includes the possibility of measuring either positive or negative lenses or systems of lenses without altering the optical setup [10]. Experimental relative errors are of the order of 2%. A common feature to these methods is their simple optical structure. In the case of Talbot interferometry, the test lens should be in contact with the grating. In this presentation, we propose a practical improvement over other existing methods. Our approach is based on the property of self-image pitch variation with respect to the original grating under non-collimated illumination (convergent or divergent). This variation is directly related to the focal length of the collimating lens. In Section 2, a detailed description of the optical conguration and a brief theoretical explanation are given. Testing experiments and error analysis are presented in Section 3. This method provides a reference testing with increased setting sensitivity achievable with such an optical architecture.

2. Method The setup for focal length measurements is shown in Fig. 1. A collimated laser beam illuminates the test lens LT. After the lens, the wavefront becomes convergent or divergent. A Ronchi grating is placed against the lens. This procedure gives rise to the series of classical Talbot images, this time magnied due to the non-parallel beam. As it is well known, when a properly collimated beam illuminate a Ronchi grating, self-images are formed by the propagation at equal distance intervals separated by a distance zT, called the Rayleigh distance. The pitch ds is the same for every selfimage, and coincides with the original grating pitch. However, under convergent or divergent illumination, the self-image pitch changes. The magnication of the self-images pitch can be interpreted as a projected geometrical shadow. If the period of the Ronchi grating is ds, when the test lens is positioned then the nth self-image period dn results: d n f sn ; ds f 1

where f is the focal length to be measured and sn is the grating-to-screen distance. A similar relationship holds for each and every self-image. Denoting e = snsn + 1 the distance between two successive self-image planes, then by simple algebra: f ed s : d n d n1 2

This equation holds for any pair of planes and gives the value of f, provided the distance between those planes is known, and the respective pitches

Collimation Lens He-Ne Laser

Test Lens

Beam Expander Ronchi Grating Self-image planes

CCD camera

Fig. 1. Experimental set-up.

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are measured. The sign of f is also given by the same equation, as the pitch dierence in the denominator is positive for a positive lens and conversely for a negative lens. Although we restrict our procedure to these self-image planes, there exist the so-called inverted self-images planes, which can also be used as alternatives in this process. These planes obey to the same relationships and yield to equivalent results.

length is obtained from the average of those measurements. In order to evaluate the validity of the method, an error analysis is needed. Calling the denition for the standard errors expression in calculating the focal length f, we have:    Df 1   X of 3  Dxi ;  f f  i ox i where xi represents each parameter to be determined. Applying Eq. (3) to Eq. (2) we get Df De Dd s Dd n Dd n1 : f e ds d n d n1 4

3. Experimental procedure and error analysis In the experimental arrangement (see Fig. 1), it is important to obtain an accurately collimated laser beam. This is precisely a key point to ensure reliable measurements. In order to accomplish this task, we use two independent procedures. First, we use a plane parallel plate to test the collimation degree. The achievable precision of this technique is guaranteed up one residual fringe, which is the method limit. Second, with this beam, we veried that the grating pitch be the same for every selfimage plane. This is another way to conrm the beam collimation. Consequently, the grating pitch ds is measured. Once these steps are accomplished, the test lens LT is positioned in close contact with the grating. Otherwise, a systematic error could be introduced, which in fact can be corrected and does not alter the mathematical expression employed. To verify the method a set of symmetricconvex glass lenses were employed. In our case, we designed simple software that rst focuses each self-image plane by a best-contrast algorithm [11] with the help of a lensless CCD camera. Once these self-images planes are found, we stored them in order to obtain their pitches dn and dn+1. The pitch is calculated in pixels/cycle units. They were obtained by rst taking on the image captured by the CCD array several intensity histograms along lines running perpendicular to the fringe direction. By averaging all these histograms, we determined the number of pixels contained in each cycle. In our experimental set up, the data from the rst eight pairs of consecutives self-images were used to obtain the focal length. The resulting focal

Let us analyze each term of the last equation for a practical example. We take the case of the 10 lines/mm grating and f = 400 mm. In measuring the distance e between the self-imaging planes, we use a piezo-electrically driven translation stage, over which the CCD camera is mounted. With this device we have De = 10 lm, and considering the lowest limiting working range between consecutive self-images as e approximately 10 mm (this value of course depends on the grating frequencies and the vergence of the beam); the rst term in Eq. (4) results De/e % 0.1%. The employed software allowed us a pitch measuring precision of about Dds @ 0.01 pixels/cycle. The lowest adopted pitch of the self-image under collimated illumination was approximately ds = 10 pixels/cycle, so the second term results Dds/ds % 0.1%. The third term is the highest contribution to the nal error due to the self-image pitch dierence in the denominator. A possible solution is to take the pitch dierence between two not consecutive planes as widely separated as possible in order to minimize this fact. This applies when having short focal lengths. For longer focal lengths, we have a practical restriction caused by their inherent lower vergence. But even under these not favorable cases, the dierence was maintained higher than 2 pixels/cycle and then its contribution results about 1%. Therefore by adding the partial errors, the resulting total error in the present case is 1.2%. In order to test the validity of our approach we use a typical gure of merit, which is the relative

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error in terms of the nominal focal length and the grating fringe frequencies. The relative error in terms of the grating fringe frequencies is depicted in Fig. 2. We have to stress that by relative error we mean the relation given by the dierence between the measured focal length and the nominal focal length divided by the nominal focal length. It should be taken into account that manufacturers indicate a paraxial focal length tolerance of 2%. By observing Fig. 2, it has to be mentioned that for decreasing frequencies the averaging procedure failed because there are a reduced number of available fringes. This assertion can be conrmed by observing the relative error corresponding to a 2 lines/mm grating where the error raises to 2% whereas for a 4 lines/mm grating, the error is kept below 1% and decreases monotonically until the 10 lines/mm grating. In the cases of increasing frequencies (see the 12 lines/mm grating in Fig. 2), the relative error increases in comparison with the 10 lines/mm grating. This is because in the pixel per cycle accurate determination, the CCD resolution began to play an important role. In our case, we use a 1/200 CCD with 752 582 pixels and a 8.6 8.3 lm cell size. Note that the results could be improved by using a higher resolution CCD camera. As described above, the lowest relative error was obtained with a 10 lines/mm grating. In rela-

tion to this point, the same basic behavior was observed in the whole lens set. Note that the error depends on the accuracy of pixel per cycle determination, therefore, the more precise values were obtained by using higher selfimages of each series. In Fig. 3, the relative errors as a function of the nominal focal length are shown. It could be observed that for nominal focal length higher than 200 mm the relative error is kept below 1%. Note that the highest error occurs for a 150 mm focal length. This is a consequence of the strong selfimage convergence so that only the rst three selfimages can be measured. Lower frequency gratings imply a lesser number of cycles to be averaged in the rst self-images and thereby an error increasing in pixel per cycle determination of the self-image. In summary, a compromise between both the image pitch determination and the number cycles to be determined must be taken into account to choose the adequate fringe frequency grating that minimizes the relative error. Fig. 4 is an example to show the inherent diculties to the pitch measurements. It depicts a couple of enlarged self-images pictures corresponding to two consecutive orders. This situation belongs to a lens with a 1000 mm focal length. The slight frequency dierence between both images is hardly observed.

2.0 1.8 1.6

1,4 1,2 1,0

Relative errors

1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Relative errors

0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0,0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

Grating (lines/mm)
Fig. 2. Plot showing the relative error as a function of the grating frequencies.

Nominal Focal Length (mm)

Fig. 3. Plot showing the relative error as a function of the nominal focal length.

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Fig. 4. Enlarged picture of self-images corresponding to two consecutive orders.

The robustness of the method was veried by measuring the focal length of a lens with aberrations. In this case, despite the weak fringe visibility obtained the focal length could be determined with high accuracy of 0.2% in comparison with the aberration free case. The method was also employed to measure divergent lenses. In this case, a negative 500 mm focal length was tested and the relative error was around of 1%.

4. Conclusions In the proposed experimental arrangement, the property of pitch variation with respect to the original grating under convergent (or divergent) illumination is utilized. In our case, the self-images pitch variation is directly related to the focal length of the test lens. The method provides a practical improvement over other existing methods. There is also an increase in the accuracy

compared to previous methods. The method allows measuring either positive or negative lenses or systems of lenses without altering the optical setup. Besides, the technique proved to have good tolerance to fringe contrast loss as could be conrmed in the case of testing a lens with aberrations. It should be highlighted the robustness and simplicity of the method. Our simple experimental arrangement renders a high precision in the focal length determination. Moreover, it is a simple routine adequate to be implemented in an automatic system.

Acknowledgments This research was performed under the auspicious of CONICET (PIP 2417), CICPBA, ANPCYT (PICT 03-12564) and Faculty of Engineering of the National University of La Plata (Argentina).

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