Polarization microscopy by use of digital holography: application to optical-fiber birefringence measurements.

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

Colomb, Tristan; Dürr, Florian; Cuche, Etienne; Pierre Marquet; Limberger, Hans G; Salathé, René-Paul; Depeursinge, Christian

Source:

Appl Opt, Volume 44, Issue 21, p.4461-9 (2005)

Keywords:

Birefringence, Equipment Design, Equipment Failure Analysis, Fiber Optic Technology, Image Enhancement, Microscopy, Polarization, Optical Fibers, Refractometry, Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

Abstract:

<p>We present a digital holographic microscope that permits one to image polarization state. This technique results from the coupling of digital holographic microscopy and polarization digital holography. The interference between two orthogonally polarized reference waves and the wave transmitted by a microscopic sample, magnified by a microscope objective, is recorded on a CCD camera. The off-axis geometry permits one to reconstruct separately from this single hologram two wavefronts that are used to image the object-wave Jones vector. We applied this technique to image the birefringence of a bent fiber. To evaluate the precision of the phase-difference measurement, the birefringence induced by internal stress in an optical fiber is measured and compared to the birefringence profile captured by a standard method, which had been developed to obtain high-resolution birefringence profiles of optical fibers.</p>