Haike GUAN, Shigeharu YOSHIKAWA, Masahiro YAMAGUCHI and Nagaaki OHYAMA

Imaging Science and Engineering Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226, Japan

(Received February 13, 1995; Accepted September 26, 1995)

A new method is proposed for reconstructing wavefront from discretely sampled interferogram data obtained by a digital lateral shearing interferometer. Assumptions applied in the conventional methods are not used and reconstruction error caused by the difference between the amount of shear and the sampling interval can be removed. System error and the influence of the discrete sampling, which limit accuracy of the tested results of the lateral shearing interferometer, are analyzed.

Key words : lateral shearing interferometer, discrete sampling, wavefront reconstruction, phase difference, system error, shear amount, sampling interval