Experimental study of the phase-shift miscalibration error in phase-shifting interferometry: use of a spectrally resolved white-light interferometer

The white-light interferogram in a spectrally resolved white-light interferometer is decomposed in its constituent spectral components by a spectrometer and displayed along its chromaticity axis. A piezoelectric transducer phase shifter in such an interferometer can give a desired phase shift of pi/2 only at one wavelength. The phase shift varies continuously at all other wavelengths along the chromaticity axis. This situation is ideal for an experimental study of the phase error due to the phase-shift error in the phase-shifting technique, as it will be shown in this paper. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.