Simulation of Extracting Phase from the Interferogram by the Phase Shifting Method.

The phase information extraction from the interference fringe is a key step in optical interferometry. Phase shift extraction method is proposed. This method is introduced amount of phase shift in the reference light, changing the relative phase of two coherent wavefront, comparing with a different amount of phase shift value in the intensity light to solve the points phase. The four steps phase shifting extraction is simulated. The simulation results show that the method not only has a strong ability of the inhibition noise, but also can identify the arbitrarily shaped interference fringes. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.