Simultaneous measurement of whole in-plane displacement using phase-shifting ESPI

A novel method for simultaneously measuring whole field in-plane displacements by using optical fiber phase-shifting electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) is presented in this paper. A 1 x 4 single mode optical fiber beamsplitter is employed to split the laser beam into four beams of equal intensity. One pair of fibers is utilized to illuminate the diffuse target at equal angles in the horizontal plane so it is sensitive only to horizontal in-plane displacement. Another pair of optical fibers is set to be sensitive only to vertical in-plane displacement. The polarization directions of light emitted by fibers are the same for each pair, but are at a right angle between pairs. The optical fibers are equal in length for each pair, but are not equal between two pairs. In this case the speckles are interference between each pair of fibers, thus the horizontal and vertical displacement components can be obtained simultaneously. By means of a fiber phase shift technique we can obtain the quantitative data of whole field displacements. This method has made it possible to study the in-plane displacement of a thin metal plate, and the examples of the results are shown to demonstrate the novel method. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.