Microlens characterization by digital holographic microscopy with physical spherical phase compensation

Microlenses have been characterized by a digital holographic microscopy system, which is immune to the inherent wavefront aberration. The digital holographic microscopy system takes advantage of fiber optics and uses the light emitted directly from a single-mode fiber as the recording reference wave. By using such a reference beam, which is quasi-identical to the object beam, the inherent wavefront aberration of the digital holographic microscope is removed. The alignment of the optical setup can be optimized with the help of numerical reconstruction software to give the system phase with the off-axis tilt removed. There is one, and only one, reference fiber point position to give a reference wavefront that is quasi-identical to the object wavefront where the system is free of wavefront aberration and directly gives the quantitative phase of the test object without the need for complicated numerical compensation. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America