Unambiguous measurement range and error tolerance in dual-wavelength interferometry.

In dual or multiwavelength interferometry, the traditional equivalent wavelength method is widely used for phase recovery to enlarge the unambiguous measurement range (UMR). In fact, however, this method ignores information of size and sign (positive or negative) of single wavelength wrapped phases, and the extension of the UMR is not sufficient. For the reflective measurement, the largest UMR of the dual or multiwavelength interferometry is half of the least-common multiple (LCM) of single wavelengths, called the LCM effective wavelength, which is often several times the equivalent wavelength. But why do we often use the equivalent wavelength and seldom use the larger UMR in practice? Existing research reveals that the actual UMR is related to the measurement error of single-wavelength-wrapped phases, and half of the LCM effective wavelength is only the theoretical value. But how do errors affect the UMR? We think the quantitative analysis and description are lacking. In this paper, we continue to study this problem, analyze it in a graphical method, and give quantitative descriptions. The simulation experiments are carried out and verify our analysis.