ABSTRACT
This chapter employs the Phase distribution that is encoded in an intensity distribution as a result of interference phenomena, and is displayed in the form of an interference pattern. A number of methods for phase shifting have been proposed in the literature. Some methods have also been adopted for simultaneous phase-shifts, and thus are useful for studying dynamical events. The fringes in an interference pattern are loci of constant phase difference. The fringe skeletonization method seeks maxima or minima of an intensity distribution. The positions of maxima or minima in the fringe pattern are determined within several pixels. Phase difference is related to parameters of interest such as the figure of a surface, height variations, and refractive index variations, which can be extracted from measurements of phase difference the two interfering waves are released simultaneously from the hologram, and hence temporal heterodyning cannot be applied for phase evaluation.
