Phase-crossing algorithm for white-light fringes analysis

The phase-crossing algorithm is proposed for white-light interferometry, which uses the multi-color phase information of spectrally decomposed interferograms recorded simultaneously with color-sensitive image sensors. The location of zero optical path difference is identified as the singular point at which the phase becomes color invariant, and is determined accurately with a sub-sampling-interval resolution from the crossing point of the multi-color phase distributions obtained by the Fourier transform method. An experimental result is presented that demonstrates the performance of the phase-crossing algorithm.