nEUCLID: a new homodyne interferometer with space applications

The objective of this project was to design a low-mass, low-power interferometer to be used for space applications. It had to be capable of remaining tilt-immune whilst working at a distance of at least 1 m. This thesis describes the design and subsequent building of a 1550 run homodyne interferometer. Known as nEUCLID, it has a working distance of 660 mm and a working range of± 120 mm. These large distances are made possible by the novel cat's eye design within the interferometer, which also allows tilt immunity of± 0.35° of the target mirror (at the sweet plane). The thesis explains in detail the theory and design of the cat's eye, known as a PCE in the text. The interferometer, nEUCLID, has a sensitivity of 420 pm/√Hz, at 1 Hz in air, tested at the working distance of the current design. It has a mass of 2 kg and an overall power of 1.8 W. Both of these values are due to using standard, off-the-shelf components in the design, and could be reduced with further development. Within this thesis ground-based and space-based applications for nEUCLID within the space industry are discussed and compared with existing technologies