Assessment of the measurement uncertainty of interferometers by means of simulation

The knowledge of measurement uncertainties is an elementary prerequisite for a proper assessment of product-quality and for controlling production processes. Furthermore, the determination of measurement uncertainties is essential for ensuring the comparability with results of other types of metrological instruments. Interferometers are amongst the most precise metrological instruments used in industry today. But in the case of interferometers it is difficult to determine all possible error sources and to estimate quantitatively for each single source the contribution to the measurement uncertainty. A promising approach to a systematic investigation of errors in an interferometer and their effects on a specific measurement appears to be the simulation of interferometric measurements in a virtual environment.