Abstract
A polarized differential–phase laser scanning microscope, which combines a polarized optical heterodyne Mach–Zehnder interferometer and a differential amplifier to scan the topographic image of a surface, is proposed. In the experiment the differential amplifier, which acts as a PM–AM converter in the experiment, converting phase modulation (PM) into amplitude modulation (AM). Then a novel, to our knowledge, phase demodulator was proposed and implemented for the differential–phase laser scanning microscope. An optical grating (1800 lpymm) was imaged. The lateral and the depth resolutions of the imaging system were 0.5 mm and 1 nm, respectively. The detection accuracy, which was limited by the reflectivity variation of the test surface, is discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 95-99 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Applied Optics |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 01 01 2001 |
| Externally published | Yes |