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Improvement of accuracy in digital holography by use
of multiple holograms
Torsten Baumbach, Ervin Kolenovic´ , Volker Kebbel, and Werner Jüptner
Speckle pattern decorrelation reduces the accuracy of interferometric shape and deformation measure-
ments. We introduce a technique for the reduction of speckle noise in digital holography. The method is
not based on classical filtering techniques such as median filters. Instead it utilizes the shift theorem of
the Fourier transform. For this method several holograms of the same object under test are recorded. The
reconstruction leads to a set of object wave fields with different speckle patterns. A proper averaging
procedure, taking into account the properties of the wrapped phases, leads to an improvement of the
accuracy in the resulting phase difference. The theory of the applied method is described and our first
results for technical components with an improvement of accuracy up to 1兾57 of the wavelength are
presented. © 2006 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 030.6140, 030.6600, 070.2590, 090.1760, 090.2880, 120.5050.
1. Introduction
Holographic interferometry has been used success-
fully for many years for the inspection of technical
components. The technique uses holographic plates
for the recording of holograms. Processing and han-
dling of the hologram plates are complex and time-
consuming. The introduction of digital holography
eliminated these drawbacks by using a CCD camera
for recording the holograms.
1,2
Using a CCD camera
and hence having direct access to the complex wave
field introduced a new degree of flexibility to optical
metrology.
3
In digital holography the reconstruction
of the holograms is done numerically in the computer.
For this, different reconstruction algorithms like the
convolution,
4
the Fresnel,
1
or the Fourier
5
approach
have been developed.
Despite the advantages of digital holography, it has
the same drawback as most coherent methods:
speckle noise due to the roughness of the surface.
Speckle noise reduces the spatial resolution and the
signal-to-noise ratio of the measurements.
6
Although
many investigations are dealing with the reduction of
speckle noise, the problem has yet to be solved
satisfactorily.
7–13
A significant reduction of speckle
noise for the investigation of transparent objects was
achieved by Kebbel et al.
14
They used an averaging
technique over several speckle fields, but the tech-
nique is not applicable to opaque objects.
The proposed technique in this paper uses the
Fourier approach in digital holography to reduce
speckle noise for opaque objects with rough surfaces.
Several digital holograms of the object are recorded
from different lateral positions of the CCD camera.
According to the shift theorem of the Fourier trans-
form, a lateral shift of an infinite-sized hologram
would only cause an additional phase factor in the
object plane. However, because of the finite size of the
CCD camera, the reconstructed wave field results
from a convolution of the object wave with a sinc
function. This convolution causes different speckle
patterns to arise from different hologram positions.
Consequently, for a set of laterally shifted holograms,
we receive a set of phase differences that can be used
for an averaging process.
2. Lensless Fourier Holography
In lensless Fourier holography
15,16
the object and ref-
erence source point are located in the same plane
parallel to the hologram plane. Therefore both source
points have the same distance from the hologram (see
Fig. 1).
The reconstruction algorithm for lensless Fourier
holography is based on the Fresnel reconstruction.
The reference source point ris located at 共x,y兲
共0, 0兲in the object plane, and the object wave field in
The authors are with the Bremer Institut für angewandte
Strahltechnik, Klagenfurter Strasse 2, D-28359 Bremen, Ger-
many. The e-mail address for T. Baumbach is baumbach@bias.de.
Received 25 October 2005; revised 1 March 2006; accepted 13
April 2006; posted 19 April 2006 (Doc. ID 65601).
0003-6935/06/246077-09$15.00/0
© 2006 Optical Society of America
20 August 2006 兾Vol. 45, No. 24 兾APPLIED OPTICS 6077