Full-field absolute phase measurements in the heterodyne interferometer with an electro-optic modulator

Abstract

A novel method for full-field absolute phase measurements in the heterodyne interferometer with an electro-optic modulator is proposed in this paper. Instead of the commonly-used half-wave voltage to drive the electro-optic modulator, a saw-tooth voltage signal with the amplitude being lower than its half-wave voltage is used. The interference signals become a group of periodical sinusoidal segments. The initial phase of each sinusoidal segment depends on the phase difference induced by the test sample. In real measurements, each segment is taken by a fast camera and becomes discrete digital points. After a series of operations, the starting point of the sampled sinusoidal segment can be determined accurately. Next, the period of the sampled sinusoidal segments is lengthened and they can be modified to a continuous sinusoidal wave by using a least-square sine fitting algorithm. The initial phase of the continuous sinusoidal wave can also be estimated. Subtracting the characteristic phase of the modulator from the initial phase, the absolute phase measured at the pixel can be obtained without the conventional reference signals. These operations are applied to other pixels, and the full-field absolute phase measurements can be achieved. The phase retardation of a quarter-wave plate is measured to show the validity of this method.