Abstract
A novel means of quantitatively assessing the performance of a phase-shifting interferometer is further investigated. We show how maximum-likelihood estimation theory can be used to estimate the surface profile from the general case of M noisy, phase-shifted measurements. Monte Carlo experiments show that the maximum-likelihood estimator is unbiased and efficient, achieving the theoretical Cramér-Rao lower bound on the variance of the error. We then use Monte Carlo experiments to compare the performance of the maximum-likelihood estimator with that of two conventional algorithms.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 7253-7258 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Applied optics |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 31 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 1 1998 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
- Engineering (miscellaneous)
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering