To evaluate the precision of the absolute flatness measurements, the authors examine the height

differences in the IWR1 absolute shapes. Methods Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the near-infrared interferometer. The near-infrared interferometer was built based on the Fizeau interferometer. Figure 2 shows a photograph of the near-infrared interferometer. The near-infrared laser diode (FOL13DDRC-A31, Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan) with a 1,310-nm peak wavelength light where the silicon plane mirror is transparent, was used as a light source. The typical peak wavelength of the laser light was 1,310 nm. The temperature www.selleckchem.com/products/stattic.html dependence of the peak emission wavelength was 0.09 nm/°C. The ambient temperature

fluctuation during the measurements by the three-flat method was within 0.1°C. The temperature of the laser diode was within 0.1°C. The wavelength fluctuation was estimated to be 0.009 nm from the temperature dependence and fluctuation. The output light from the near-infrared light source was expanded to the necessary size. A parallel light was provided using the collimator and perpendicularly incident on the reference and detected surfaces. The reference and detected surfaces were placed almost parallel, and the distance between them was approximately 24 mm. The light was divided into two waves on the reference surface. One of the waves was reflected on the surface TPCA-1 supplier and the other passed through it. The wave passing through the reference surface was reflected on the detected surface. The two reflected waves passing through the

imaging lens interfered and formed interferograms. The image of the interferogram was put into a personal computer with a near-infrared charge-coupled device (CCD) camera (C5840, Hamamatsu Photonics K. K., Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan). The CCD camera had a high sensitivity to wavelengths from 400 to 1,650 nm. The signal of the CCD camera output was converted to a 10-bit digital signal using a video analog-to-digital converter. The 32 digital signals were accumulated on a computer with a software (LabVIEW, National Instruments Corporation, Austin, TX, USA) designed to obtain the average. The first 10 digits of the average signal were chosen PRKACG as the measured value of the interferogram intensity. Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the near-infrared interferometer. Figure 2 Photograph of the near-infrared interferometer. Figure 3 shows a typical intensity map of an interferogram. The distance between the reference and detected surfaces varied by an interval of λ/12 to λ/2 with a phase shift stage, and interferograms were recorded at equal intervals of the shifted distance using the CCD camera. The phase shift stage which was composed of elastic hinges and a piezoelectric actuator traveled in a straight line.