Yukitoshi OTANI, Takuya SHIMADA and Toru YOSHIZAWA

Deptartment of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16, Naka-cho, Koganei, Tokyo, 184 Japan

(Accepted July 1, 1994)

A precise method for measurement of two-dimensional birefringence distribution is described and discussed. This method can determine the relative retardation and the azimuthal angle of the fast axis in an optical component. In order to detect relative retardation with high resolution, a local-sampling phase shifting technique is proposed. This method can measure 256 × 256 values of the birefringent phase difference and azimuthal angle in a short time with ±0.02 deg (0.03 nm) of retardation accuracy.

Key words : birefringence measurement, quantization error, local-sampling phase shifting technique