Fourier-transform-only method for random phase shifting interferometry

Abstract

An accurate and computationally simple phase shifting interferometry (PSI) method is developed to reconstruct phase maps without a priori knowledge of the phase shift. Previous methods developed for random PSI either do not address general sources of error or require complex iterative processes and increased computational time. Here we demonstrate a novel method that is able to extract the phase using only Fourier transform (FT). With spatial FT analysis, randomly phase-shifted data is reordered to allow performing temporal FT on the intensity, which is a function of the phase shift. Since the entire process, including order analysis and phase calculation, is based only on Fourier analysis, it is rapid, easy to implement, and addresses general sources of error. The method exhibits high performance in experiments containing random phase shifts. Moreover, simulations incorporating common experimental error sources such as random intensity noise, intensity harmonics, and phase shift errors demonstrate that the proposed method performs as good as or better than the state-of-the-art phase reconstruction techniques in terms of accuracy and time.