Comparison Of Phase-Measurement Algorithms

Phase-measurement algorithms for calculating the phase of a wavefront from interference fringe data are compared. Experimental data show that different algorithms yield different phase values when using the same intensity data. A computer simulation of errors due to phase-shifter miscalibration and nonlinearity, as well as detector nonlinearity is performed to show that certain algorithms are more sensitive to some errors than others. Dependences of each of these errors is found versus percent of error over a 2ic range of phase values. These results enable the determination of what system errors are present in a phase-measurement interferometer.