Snapshot on-axis Fizeau polarization phase-shifting interferometer

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a highly stable on-axis near common-path snapshot Fizeau-polarization phase-shifting interferometer by combining the polarization phase-shifting scheme with Fizeau on-axis interferometry. The compact on-axis design of the Fizeau interferometry is achieved by utilizing the characteristic feature of a wire grid polarizer, which generates the orthogonal polarization components required for the proposed polarization phase-shifting scheme. The quantitative phase measurement capability is experimentally validated by estimating the phase profile of various phase-sensitive standard and unknown phase samples.