Improvement of accuracy in digital holography by use of multiple holograms

Speckle pattern decorrelation reduces the accuracy of interferometric shape and deformation measurements. We introduce a technique for the reduction of speckle noise in digital holography. The method is not based on classical filtering techniques such as median filters. Instead it utilizes the shift theorem of the Fourier transform. For this method several holograms of the same object under test are recorded. The reconstruction leads to a set of object wave fields with different speckle patterns. A proper averaging procedure, taking into account the properties of the wrapped phases, leads to an improvement of the accuracy in the resulting phase difference. The theory of the applied method is described and our first results for technical components with an improvement of accuracy up to 1/57 of the wavelength are presented. (C) 2006 Optical Society of America.