Optical characterization of semiconductor microlenses using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer in the near-infrared region

We present a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to characterize semiconductor microlenses in transmission. We therefore make use of a wavelength of 1550nm with the possibility of expansion towards the IR spectrum. In this paper, the concept of our interferometer as well as the set-up is explained. We demonstrate the working principle and measurements on fused silica and silicon microlenses and benchmark the experimental results with measurement data obtained with well established micro-optics instrumentation tools.