Abstract

Digital phase-shifting interferometry (PSI), a technique widely used in optical testing, requires interferograms collected at optical phase differences separated by a definite phase step. The five-frame interferogram-collecting sequence suggested by Hariharan et al. [Appl. Opt. 26, 2504 (1987)] is extremely effective in significantly reducing the errors in height profiles derived using PSI that are caused by phase-step errors. In this Letter, we report on a class of five-frame sequence that, owing to its mathematical equivalence with the one suggested by Hariharan et al. and its ease of execution, is more commonly used but is much less effective in reducing the height profile errors caused by phase-step errors.

© 2011 Optical Society of America

One-shot phase-shifting interferometry: five, seven, and nine interferograms

Gustavo Rodriguez-Zurita, Noel-Ivan Toto-Arellano, Cruz Meneses-Fabian, and José F. Vázquez-Castillo
Opt. Lett. 33(23) 2788-2790 (2008)

Carrier squeezing interferometry: suppressing phase errors from the inaccurate phase shift

Bo Li, Lei Chen, Wulan Tuya, Suodong Ma, and Rihong Zhu
Opt. Lett. 36(6) 996-998 (2011)

Two-frame phase-shifting interferometry for testing optical surfaces

Chao Tian and Shengchun Liu
Opt. Express 24(16) 18695-18708 (2016)

Correction of PZT scanner errors using a phase compensation method in white-light phase-shifting interferometry

Namyoon Kim and Soonyang Kwon
Appl. Opt. 60(30) 9311-9318 (2021)

Phase-shifting interferometry based on principal component analysis

J. Vargas, J. Antonio Quiroga, and T. Belenguer
Opt. Lett. 36(8) 1326-1328 (2011)