Generalized amplitude-phase-shifting interferometry.

Recently, a novel technique was proposed for recovering the complex amplitude of an optical field from a set of interferograms modulated in both visibility and phase steps for the synchronous case, named amplitude-phase-shifting interferometry (APSI). This requirement leads to errors in the accuracy of phase recovery due to miscalibration or the nonlinear response of the device used to generate the phase steps; in the APSI case, these are polarizers. In this paper, we propose to create a generalized model of the APSI technique where the phase steps can be different from each other. APSI has been successfully implemented in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, while the present technique has been deployed in a double-aperture common-path interferometer (DACPI). Additionally, it is demonstrated that in a DACPI, the use of experimental elements that may cause aberrations or extra noise in the experimental results is reduced. The aim is to have an even more robust phase and amplitude recovery technique, now named generalized amplitude-phase-shifting interferometry. Experimental results are presented and validated through a numerical noise study.