Experimental study on subaperture testing with iterative stitching algorithm

Applying the iterative stitching algorithm, we demonstrate the power of subaperture testing through experiments. Naturally the algorithm applies to flats, spherical or aspheric surfaces. We first apply it to a silicon carbide flat mirror with larger aperture than the interferometer's. The testing results help to obtain a high-precision mirror through five iterations of ion beam figuring. The second experiment is 37-subaperture testing of a large spherical mirror. Good consistence is observed between the stitching result and the full aperture test result using a Zygo interferometer. Finally we study the applicability of the algorithm to subaperture testing of a parabolic surface. The stitching result is consistent with the auto-collimation test result. Furthermore, the surface is tested with annular subapertures and also retrieved by our algorithm successfully.