Eva-Lena Johansson

An optical technique that is based on defocused digital speckle photography is proposed for the evaluation of phase objects. Phase objects are different kinds of transparent or semi-transparent media that allow light to be transmitted. A phase object inserted in a laser speckle field introduces speckle displacement, from which information about the object may be extracted. It is shown that one may use speckle displacements to determine both the phase gradients and the positions of phase objects. As an illustration the positions and focal lengths of two weak lenses have been derived from defocused laser speckle displacement.

Transient events in optically transparent media occur in many engineering applications. Using pulsed TV holography to capture a laser speckle field propagated through an optical disturbance makes it possible to obtain both the position and the phase gradients of the disturbance. The technique depends on the fact that speckles transmitted through an optical disturbance will be displaced by an amount that depends on the relation of the defocus to the object. First the speckle field is captured holographically, without and with disturbance present. Then the recorded fields are numerically refocused in a computer to a number of different focal planes. With a cross-correlation technique a number of speckle displacement fields are obtained, and from them the data about the disturbance are obtained. So far the technique has been shown to work for thin objects.