A legend in the Southern California optics industry has passed away. Tom Bialek, President and founder of Prisms Unlimited, passed away March 31, 2009.  Tom Bialek was born in 1948 in Pennsylvania. He was a veteran of the Vietnam war where he earned a Purple Heart. After moving to California he worked for many optical shops in Southern California, including Valtec (now Precision Optical) and Herron Optics. In 1980 he founded his own optical shop, Prisms Unlimited. Prisms Unlimited advanced to be a premiere optical shop - with a reputation for exceptional flat and angle work. He truly had accomplished what many had tried...a process, more than art, that was reproducible. Just as renowned as his excellent quality was Tom's demeanor and rhetoric; his tendency to "speak his mind" made him both a legend and feared in the industry. His influence and contributions to the optical industry will be missed. Bialek is survived by his wife Ying Zhao; Danny, son of Sue Bialek; and Ryan and McKenzie, son and daughter of Kim Bialek.

Gomez Cylinder Interferometer (working system, laser fires)
124 mm Grating - some scratches
250 mm Grating
300 mm Grating
450 mm Grating
750 mm Grating
1,000 mm Grating
2,200 mm Grating

SOME BASIC USAGE INSTRUCTIONS - A technical paper on the setup is also available.The grating is aligned normal to the interferometer in align mode. There will be a converging beam reflected at approximately 50 degrees (changes slightly with F# ) going one direction and a diverging beam going the opposite way. By flipping the grating you can reverse the directions. The converging beam comes to a line focus and a concave test piece is placed at a distance equal to the radius away from the focal point of the grating. Align the spots in alignment mode then switch to test and fine tune the alignment. The test piece needs to be on a 4 axis stage and the axis of focus is normal to the reflected grating beam.