Patent ID: 7633624

Claim:
A Michelson interferometer having transversely arranged arms defining first and second optical axes terminating, respectively, in first and second retro-reflectors, the interferometer comprising: first and second cube corner retro-reflectors disposed, respectively, at ends of the first and second optical axes, a beamsplitter for receiving an incoming ray along the first optical axis, and (1) transmitting a first portion of the incoming ray along the first optical axis and (2) reflecting a second portion of the incoming ray along the second optical axis toward the second cube corner retro-reflector, and the beamsplitter configured as a first optical wedge having narrow and thick ends, a compensator configured as a second optical wedge for (1) transmitting the first portion of the incoming ray along the first optical axis toward the first cube corner retro-reflector and (2) transmitting combined first and second portions of the incoming ray, as an output ray, along the second optical axis, and the compensator configured as a second optical wedge having narrow and thick ends, wherein the first and second cube corner retro-reflectors provide self compensation for chromatic aberration and anamorphism between the incoming ray and the output ray, the narrow ends of the beamsplitter and compensator are disposed closer to each other than the thick ends of the beamsplitter and compensator, and a length dimension of the beamsplitter and a length dimension of the compensator are oriented to substantially face each other, where the length dimension is transverse to the narrow and thick ends.