The influence of diffraction divergence and wavefront curvature of the Gaussian beam on the error of meter standard

Shifts of the interference fringes originating from the passage of Gaussian beam through a Michelson interferometer have been studied, that allowed finding error of the meter standard caused by diffraction divergence and wavefront curvature of the light beam. We were obtained dependence of the error on the crossection of the beam waist and its position in the reference arm of the interferometer.