Abstract: In a strain sensing system in which a strained grating is illuminated with a pair of beams chosen from three possible beams to sense strain in two dimensions, an arrangement is disclosed of two beam splitters, as least one plane mirror, and three tilted mirrors, all fixed to a support plate and which can supply the three required illuminating beams.

Abstract: A surface on which there is a regular periodic pattern, often a relief pattern (12), is deformed, and in-plane deformation is sensed by illuminating the deformed pattern with a beam (12) of coherent light so that light is reflected as one zero order beam and a plurality of diffracted beams; two of the beams (16,18) are combined so that they interfere in a manner related to the deformation along the direction of intersection of the surface plane with the plane in which the two interfering beams lie. The magnitude and direction of in-plane deformation in one or more directions, and the magnitude and direction of the maximum in-plane stress or strain, can be determined automatically.