Detection and correction of wavefront errors caused by slight reference tilt in two-step phase-shifting digital holography

A simple and convenient method, without the need for any additional optical devices and measurements, is suggested to improve the quality of the reconstructed object wavefront in two-step phase-shifting digital holography by decreasing the errors caused by reference beam tilt, which often occurs in practice and subsequently introduces phase distortion in the reconstructed wave. The effects of reference beam tilt in two-step generalized interferometry is analyzed theoretically, showing that this tilt incurs no error either on the extracted phase shift or on the retrieved real object wave amplitude on the recording plane, but causes great deformation of the recovered object wavefront. A corresponding error detection and correction approach is proposed, and the formulas to calculate the tilt angle and correct the wavefront are deduced. A series of computer simulations to find and remove the wavefront errors caused by reference beam tilt demonstrate the effectiveness of this method. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America