Analysis of wavelength error in spectral phase shifting of digital holographic microscopy

Digital holographic microscopy is an attractive technology of precision measurement. Phase shifting is required to correctly reconstruct the measured surfaces from interferograms. Spectral phase shifting scheme, as an alternative approach of phase shifting, has drawn intensive attention in recent years. However, the wavelength modulated by the acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) is not sufficiently precise. As a consequence, severe measurement errors will be caused. In this paper, an iterative calibration algorithm is proposed. It estimates the unknown wavelength errors in the 3-step spectral phase shifting interferometry and then reconstructs the complex object wave. The actual wavelength is obtained by minimizing the difference between the measured and calculated intensities. Numerical examples have demonstrated that this algorithm can achieve very high accuracy over a wide range of wavelengths.