Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for measuring and compensating birefringence in rotating disks

US5644562A · kind A · utility

46Cited by
6References
39Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 28, 1996
Grant dateJul 1, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 28, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11B33/10
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An apparatus and method for measuring and compensating for birefringence in a rotating ground glass disk (20) such as are employed in polarization based optical flying height testers. The polarized light (1, 3) impinges on the top surface (24) of the disk (20) and is refracted through the disk to a measurement point (90) on the opposite surface (25) from which it is reflected back through the disk (20) and refracted before it exits the disk (20) in a beam (9) containing both s aand p polarizations which are detected by a phase detector (13) which measures any difference in phase between the s and p polarizations. Any variation of the phase .theta..sub.G with respect to the position defined by the measurement point provides the birefringence parameters b.sub..parallel.,b.sub..perp. for the positions on the disk (20). The phase detector (13) measures the phase .theta..sub.G at a skew angle .zeta. defined between the plane of incidence (101), defined by the existing beam (9) and the incident beam (3), drawn through the measurement point (90) perpendicular to a radius line (102) for the disk (20).

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.