300 mm ruling engine producing gratings and echelles under interferometric control in China

TLDR: In this paper, a new ruling tool carriage system and its driving mechanism for a 300mm ruling engine producing gratings and echelles under interferometric control (CIOMP-2) are presented.

Abstract: The designs of 300 mm ruling engine producing gratings and echelles under interferometric control (CIOMP-2) are presented. A new ruling-tool carriage system and its driving mechanism—which are easy to manufacture—are proposed. A new blank carriage system, controlled by a dual-frequency laser interferometer and a piezoelectric actuator, is designed. The CIOMP-2 ruling engine can now rule grating blanks with dimensions up to 300  mm×300  mm, and mainly rules gratings with grating constants between 10 and 2400  lines/mm. The wavelength range of CIOMP-2 gratings is from ultraviolet to mid-infrared wavelengths. Experiments show that the new ruling-tool carriage system works well and stability of motion is improved with the help of a flexure-hinge structure, and the threefold standard deviation values of the blank carriage positioning errors are less than ∼5  nm. For 600  line/mm gratings (diffraction order m=−1), the scatter intensities and ghosts reach 10−5 of the maximum intensity. The scatter intensities and ghost of gratings ruled with CIOMP-2 are low, and no Rowland ghosts are visible. The gratings ruled by CIOMP-2 have high diffraction efficiency and resolving power. CIOMP-2 can also produce varied-line-space, bend-line, and aberration-reducing gratings and echelles.