Abstract

Quantitative evaluation of holographic interferograms requires high-resolution interference phase measurement with heterodyne or quasi-heterodyne methods. The presence of speckles in the interferogram of objects with diffusely scattering surfaces gives rise to a statistical error for the phase measurement. The statistical properties of interference detection in speckled images are theoretically investigated, and the resulting phase errors are rigorously calculated. The mean-square phase error is inversely proportional to the number of detected speckles. In addition, it depends on the decorrelation of the interfering speckle fields, owing to transverse displacement or coherent background. The number of speckles and the phase error are experimentally determined and compared with theory.

© 1986 Optical Society of America

Higher-order statistical properties of speckle fields and their application to rough-surface interferometry

U. Vry and A. F. Fercher
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3(7) 988-1000 (1986)

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J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3(2) 210-214 (1986)

Statistical properties of the speckle phase in the diffraction region

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J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3(7) 1080-1089 (1986)

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J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3(6) 847-855 (1986)