Fourier transform optical profilometry using fiber optic Lloyd's mirrors.

A fiber optic Lloyd's mirror assembly is used to obtain various optical interference patterns for the detection of 3D rigid body shapes. Two types of fiber optic Lloyd's systems are used in this work. The first consists of a single-mode optical fiber and a highly reflecting flat mirror to produce bright and dark strips. The second is constructed by locating a single-mode optical fiber in a v-groove, which is formed by two orthogonal flat mirrors to allow the generation of square-type interference patterns for the desired applications. The structured light patterns formed by these two fiber Lloyd's techniques are projected onto 3D objects. Fringe patterns are deformed due to the object's surface topography, which are captured by a digital CCD camera and processed with a Fourier transform technique to accomplish 3D surface topography of the object. It is demonstrated that the fiber-optic Lloyd's technique proposed in this work is more compact, more stable, and easier to configure than other existing surface profilometry systems, since it does not include any high-cost optical tools such as aligners, couplers, or 3D stages. The fringe patterns are observed to be more robust against environmental disturbances such as ambient temperature and vibrations.