Beamsplitter cube for white light interferometry

Farr, Keith B.; George, Nicholas

doi:10.1117/12.59886

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Current practice in interference microscopes is to use a source with a short temporal coherence length like an LED (light emitting diode). Obtaining high quality interference fringes with these types of sources requires tight tolerances on the optical system to equalize path lengths [ 14 , 16 ]. A major requirement is that the spatial and temporal coherence functions need to overlap one another for high quality interference fringes [ 17 , 18 ].…”

Section: Dynamic Interference Microscopementioning

confidence: 99%

“…At 20× and ~200–300 µm total thickness, very good fringe contrast is easily obtainable. At 50×, it is very important to match aberrations of the two microscope objectives [ 20 ], have a high quality beam splitter with very little OPD error [ 14 ], and align these components to maximize image quality and fringe contrast [ 21 ].…”

Section: Dynamic Interference Microscopementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These types of sources help to reduce effects of reflections off of nearby surfaces and speckle in the imaging system. However, the shorter the temporal coherence length, the more important it is to match the optical path lengths of the reference and test beams [ 14 ]. Further improvement in microscope imaging systems has been obtained by incorporating extended low spatial coherence sources (sources with extended areas) [ 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dynamic quantitative phase imaging for biological objects using a pixelated phase mask

Creath

Goldstein

2012

Biomed. Opt. Express

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This paper describes research in developing a dynamic quantitative phase imaging microscope providing instantaneous measurements of dynamic motions within and among live cells without labels or contrast agents. It utilizes a pixelated phase mask enabling simultaneous measurement of multiple interference patterns derived using the polarization properties of light to track dynamic motions and morphological changes. Optical path difference (OPD) and optical thickness (OT) data are obtained from phase images. Two different processing routines are presented to remove background surface shape to enable quantification of changes in cell position and volume over time. Data from a number of different moving biological organisms and cell cultures are presented.

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Section: Dynamic Interference Microscopementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Dynamic Interference Microscopementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dynamic quantitative phase imaging for biological objects using a pixelated phase mask

Creath

Goldstein

2012

Biomed. Opt. Express

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“…Beamsplitter cubes are widely used to ensure matching of geometrical path lengths of light rays in the two arms of the interferometer. However, commercially available beamsplitters have a dispersion error [12][13][14] due to different geometrical path lengths of the light rays in dispersive glass in the two interferometer arms. To reduce the dispersion error as much as possible, two degrees of freedom must be controlled during the fabrication process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variable effective thickness of beamsplitter cube and dispersion error in white-light spectral interferometry

Hlubina

Luňáček

Cyprian

et al. 2008

16th Polish-Slovak-Czech Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics

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A white-light spectral interferometric technique employing a Michelson interferometer with same metallic mirrors is used to measure the effective thickness of a beamsplitter cube. The thickness is measured for four different beamsplitters being in two different orientations. Moreover, it is revealed that the phase function of a thin-film structure measured by a similar interferometric technique depends on the path length difference adjusted in the Michelson interferometer. This phenomenon is due to a dispersion error of a beamsplitter cube, the effective thickness of which varies with the adjusted path length difference. A technique for eliminating the effect in measurement of the phase function is described. First, the effective thickness of the beamsplitter cube as a function of the path length difference is measured. Second, the phase function of the thin-film structure is measured for the same path length differences as those adjusted in the first case. In both cases, the phase is retrieved from the recorded spectral interferograms by using a windowed Fourier transform applied in the wavelength domain.

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“…Beam splitter cubes are widely used to ensure matching of geometrical path lengths of light rays in the two arms of the interferometer. However, commercially available beam splitters have a dispersion error [14][15][16] due to different geometrical path lengths of the light rays in dispersive glass in the two interferometer arms. To reduce the dispersion error as much as possible, two degrees of freedom must be controlled during the fabrication process [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%