A
laser interferometer is embedded into an interference
microscope to precisely determine the in-focus position of the
microscope objective's
reference mirror. A collimated
laser beam is introduced into the
microscope system and split into two beams directed toward a calibration
reference surface and the interference objective. The light reflected from the calibration
reference surface is returned to the camera. The light into the interference objective is focused onto the
reference mirror and returned to the camera. For the purpose of calibration, the two beams are combined at the camera to produce interference fringes. When the
reference mirror is in focus, the returned beam is collimated; if the mirror is on either side of focus, the beam is either converging or diverging. Accordingly, the interferogram produced at the camera reflects the in-focus or out-of-focus condition of the reference mirror. The curvature of the
wavefront returned from the reference mirror is determined electronically by analyzing the interference fringes produced with the beam returned from the calibration
reference surface. By minimizing the curvature of the reference-mirror
wavefront as the mirror is translated along the
optical path, the reference mirror can be focused with an accuracy greater than possible by
visual observation. Furthermore, by automating the focusing
system with a precise translation mechanism driven by closed-
loop control, operator-to-operator variations are completely eliminated.