Digital phase stepping speckle interferometry

Abstract

A variation of electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) is presented whereby phase fringes are produced in contrast to speckle correlation fringes. Digital phase stepping speckle interferometry uses a phase measurement technique developed for holographic interferometry, which involves phase shifting of the reference beam in a conventional speckle interferometer. Saw-tooth phase fringes are produced by subtracting the phases of the speckle fields before and after object deformation in a digital frame store. This enables the sign of the deformation to be distinguished. After application of a special low-pass digital filter, the phase fringes are of adequate quality to be counted automatically. © 1986.