Accurate measurement of interferometer group delay using field-compensated scanning white light interferometer

Interferometers are key elements in radial velocity (RV) experiments in astronomy observations, and accurate calibration of the group delay of an interferometer is required for high precision measurements. A novel field-compensated white light scanning Michelson interferometer is introduced as an interferometer calibration tool. The optical path difference (OPD) scanning was achieved by translating a compensation prism, such that even if the light source were in low spatial coherence, the interference stays spatially phase coherent over a large interferometer scanning range. In the wavelength region of 500-560 nm, a multimode fiber-coupled LED was used as the light source, and high optical efficiency was essential in elevating the signal-to-noise ratio of the interferogram signal. The achromatic OPD scanning required a one-time calibration, and two methods using dual-laser wavelength references and an iodine absorption spectrum reference were employed and cross-verified. In an experiment measuring the group delay of a fixed Michelson interferometer, Fourier analysis was employed to process the interferogram data. The group delay was determined at an accuracy of 1 x 10(-5), and the phase angle precision was typically 2.5 x 10(-6) over the wide wavelength region. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America