Laser confocal radius measurement method for unpolished spheres.

A laser confocal radius measurement method for unpolished spheres (CRMUS) is proposed for measuring the radius of an unpolished sphere during optical sphere processing. CRMUS uses the laser confocal focusing technique to accurately identify the cat's eye and confocal positions of the unpolished sphere, and then uses the distance between the cat's eye and confocal positions measured by a distance measurement interferometer to derive the radius. The partially coherent optical theoretical model of the CRMUS derived indicates that the CRMUS is able to measure the radius of the unpolished sphere with a roughness of less than 0.15 μm. Using an unpolished sphere made of Schott BK7 as the test sphere, experimental results indicate that the CRMUS has a relative expanded uncertainty of less than 20 ppm. The CRMUS could greatly increase processing efficiency.