Sensitivity adjustable contouring by digital holography and a virtual reference wavefront

A new method of contouring using digital holography and a virtual reference wavefront is reported. In this method, an object wave is first recorded and then digitally reconstructed. At the same time, a reference wave is digitally introduced to interfere with the reconstructed object wave to form a contour pattern. Since the form or curvature of the reference wave can be arbitrarily designed and artificially generated by a computer, the contouring sensitivity (the depth interval) can be easily adjusted for different purpose. The effectiveness of this method has been verified by computer simulations with both the conventional off-axis hologram and the phase-shifting hologram. The simplicity of optical setup and the unique ability of changing contouring sensitivity in this technique make it attractive potential in practical measurements. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.