Influence of reference sphere on test accuracy of Ritchey–Common method

Abstract The authors analyse the influence of reference sphere on the test accuracy of Ritchey–Common method during testing of flat mirror surface. A simulation model is established to simulate the influence of different radii of curvature of reference sphere on system wavefront. Then, the difference between the flat mirror surface result with reference sphere surface error to the actual flat mirror surface is examined by this model. The test accuracy of flat mirror result can be effectively improved by eliminating the influence of the surface error of reference sphere. When the surface accuracy of the reference sphere is better than 0.01 λ, the influence on RMS test accuracy is within 0.01 λ. R–C test path is built to test a 100 mm‐diameter flat mirror surface, and its results are compared with those of the flat mirror surface without surface error of reference sphere and with the test result of the interferometer. When the surface accuracy of the actual used area of reference sphere is better than 0.01 λ, the effect on flat mirror RMS accuracy is within 0.01 λ. The RMS test accuracy can reach 0.01 λ, when the surface error of reference sphere is retained. The experiment verifies the correctness of the simulation results and guarantees the improvement in the test accuracy of R–C method.