Some considerations of reduction of reference phase error in phase-stepping interferometry

Abstract

Positioning errors and miscalibrations of the phase-stepping device in a phase-stepping interferometer lead to systematic errors proportional to twice the measured phase distribution. We discuss the historical development of various error-compensating phase-shift algorithms from a unified mathematical point of view. Furthermore, we demonstrate experimentally that systematic errors can also be removed a posteriori. A Twyman-Green-type microlens test interferometer was used for the experiments.