Fibre-optical confocal scanning interference microscopy

Abstract Fibre-optical confocal scanning interference microscopy is investigated. The interference axial response in a confocal system consisting of either optical fibres or finite-sized pinhole detectors is studied. It is shown that the fringe visibility of confocal interferometry using optical fibres is unity even for finite values of the fibre spot size, while that using pinhole masks is degraded on increasing the pinhole size. The confocal interference axial responses were also measured, revealing good agreements with theoretical predictions.

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