Single shot phase-shifting interferometry with q = ±1 optical vortices and modulation of polarization

This research describes a proposal of a single-shot interferometer with four interferograms incorporating the usage of phase vortices of unitary topological charge. The system features vortices generated with a LCoS as the system's transfer function. By employing polarization phase shifting techniques and field replication methods several copies of the interferogram of interest are achieved, each copy with its prescribed phase shift. Experimental results of wrapped optical phases calculated by using a four-step algorithm are shown, as well as a discussion of the used deconvolution method to recover the unwrapped phase. In order to show the feasibility of the proposal, experimental results corresponding to the discrimination of peaks or valleys are presented and a comparison with the zero topological case.