THE ONE-STEP PHASE-SHIFTING TECHNIQUE FOR WAVE-FRONT INTERFEROMETRY

Hitherto, phase-shifting schemes in wave-front interferometry required a minimum of two precise phase steps in order to derive the phase. Th is paper outlines and demonstrates a novel technique entailing one pre cise phase step. Numerical analyses of phase-drift errors indicate tha t the proposed technique compares favourably with performances of the three- and four-bucket algorithms currently in use. Furthermore, it mi nimizes the period of computation by necessitating the use of three pr ocessing frames.