Optical Differentiation Phase Measurement Using the Bias Shifting Method

A new optical phase measurement method using a differentiation filter is proposed. The new method uses two images obtained by shifting the filter. This method has an advantage in that non-uniformity of the wavefront intensity does not produce errors. We present herein the theory of the newly proposed method and verify the theory by computer simulation. The effects of non-uniformity of the wavefront intensity, noise, and bias shifting length for errors are discussed. The system has been demonstrated for a plane wave and a spherical wave. For the proposed method, although the number of errors due to noise increases, the number of errors due to non-uniformity decreases. Therefore, the proposed method is useful for the phase measurement of a wavefront for which the intensity is not uniform. In addition, it improves the accuracy of the phase measurement system using a differentiation filter.