Two-wavelength in-line phase-shifting interferometry based on polarizing separation for accurate surface profiling

We describe a configuration that can be used for two-wavelength phase-shifting in-line interferometry based on polarizing separation. The experiment is conducted on a sample with a step height of 1:34 μm nominally. In this paper, five- and seven-phase step algorithms have been compared for their effectiveness in reducing the noise in the phase maps. The noise is further reduced by the application of the flat fielding method. The recorded interferograms are processed using seven-phase step algorithm to obtain the phase map for each wavelength separately. The independent phase maps are subtracted and a phase map for the beat-wavelength is obtained and converted to height map. The results extracted from the seven-phase step algorithm have been compared with the results extracted from the single shot off-axis geometry and the results are in agreement.