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A novel method of determining phase from a modulated intensity pattern is described. A line integral of the gradient of the phase is used to reconstruct the phase, eliminating the necessity for complex methods of phase unwrapping. The new algorithm can be used with any technique that experimentally or theoretically yields the cosine and sine or the tangent of the phase. This phase-reconstruction process works effectively even in the regions of high-intensity gradients and is insensitive to the profile of the illuminating beams and to the shape of the domain boundaries.

A pair of thin prisms is used to deviate a light beam without changing the image orientation in a vectorial shearing interferometer. The relative angle between prisms determines the displacement of the wave front and its tilt. The direction of the beam displacement is controlled by means of changing the relative angle between prisms. This system is employed to control the displacement of a sheared wave front as a vector quantity and to introduce a controlled amount of tilt in what we believe is a novel interferometric shearing system. The predicted performance of this wave-front director is confirmed experimentally.

An analytical expression is derived for the tilt introduced into a wave front by a Dove prism with manufacturing errors in the prism's base angles and pyramidal angle. We found that the tilt decreases when the base angles are increased above the values of traditional design. The increase in the length-aperture ratio of a prism is detrimental to the prism's performance. However, a Dove prism with a widened aperture increases throughput and maintains a manageable prism weight for implementation in a rotational shearing interferometer. Thus we propose a Dove prism designed with a widened aperture to increase throughput in a rotational shearing interferometer and with larger base angles to minimize the wave-front tilt introduced by manufacturing errors. Experimental results implemented in a rotational shearing interferometer demonstrate the feasibility of this design.

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The vectorial shearing interferometer is based on the Mach-Zehnder configuration; it incorporates a displacement shearing system composed of a pair of wedge prisms that modify the optical path difference and the tilt of the sheared wave front with respect to that of the reference wave front. Variable shear and tilt can be implemented along any direction by choice of displacements Delta x and Delta y. The number of fringes and their orientation can be controlled with the vectorial shear. Knowledge of the prescribed displacements in the x and the y directions permits one to obtain a phase gradient in any direction.