The tilt-compensated interferometers of the present invention are novel variations of Michelson's interferometer that use tilt- and shear-compensation to provide excellent photometric accuracy even when there are imperfections in the scanning motion used to produce variation of path difference. The tilt-compensation mechanism of the present invention consists of antiparallel reflections from a beamsplitter element and a roof reflector element, which elements are held rigidly in alignment. Several particularly useful embodiments of the invention are described. Other advantages of the present invention include photometric stability and reduced cost because manual alignment is not required. This interferometer has applications in spectrometry, spectral imaging and metrology.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a CONTINUATION of prior application Ser. No. 09/299,022, filed on Apr. 26, 1999, entitled TILT-COMPENSATED INTERFEROMETERS, which will issue as on Oct. 22, 2002 as U.S. Pat. No. 6,469,790. The application Ser. No. 09/299,022 claimed priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119(e) from Provisional Patent Application No. 60/120,736, filed Feb. 18, 1999. The application Ser. No. 09/299,022 was a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/959,030, filed Oct. 28, 1997, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,495. The application Ser. No. 09/299,022 and 60/120,736 and 08/959,030 applications and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,898,495 and 6,469,790 are hereby incorporated herein by reference for the entirety of their disclosures.
