Universal phase reconstruction approach of self-calibrating phase-shifting interferometry.

Self-calibrating phase-shifting interferometry (PSI) reconstructs the phase map from three-frame or more phase-shifting interferograms without the need for knowing accurate phase steps. The existing phase reconstruction methods for self-calibrating PSI still have many constraints in terms of the required number of interferograms, special usage preconditions, etc. In this Letter, a universal, accurate, and efficient phase reconstruction method for self-calibrating PSI is proposed. In this approach, we search the solution space of phase shifts to obtain the modulation amplitude of interferograms with the minimum coefficient of variation (CV). Then the phase is reconstructed through the searched phase shifts. Numerical and experimental studies demonstrate that this method can realize highly accurate phase reconstruction consistently, compared to the currently popular methods in their own usable ranges. We anticipate that this Letter may provide a universal and powerful solution for the phase reconstruction of self-calibrating PSI.