Phase shifting phase contrast interferometer using a dye-doped liquid-crystal self-aligning phase modulator

摘要

A new phase contrast imaging system that permits a quantitative observation of phase distribution of a general object is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. This is realized by implementing the phase shifting technique in the phase contrast imaging system. A dye-doped nematic liquid-crystal (NLC) is newly employed for this purpose as a variable phase filter in contrast to the constant phase plate employed in the conventional phase contrast microscope (PCM). The dye-doped NLC provides a practical advantage to the system that realizes an alignment-free optical system for the phase plate. The self-alignment property of the phase filter is realized by utilizing the local phase transition from the liquid-crystal to liquid, which is induced by the relatively strong incident light of the specular component of the object. In the experiment, the fundamental phase modulation property and the response of phase modulation ability were measured as a function of incident power of light. Next, the phase measurements were performed with several phase gratings and composite objects having different phase amplitudes and absorption. As an experimental result, the usefulness of the proposed method was confirmed, and the accuracy of the phase measurement was estimated to be λ/40. In addition, it was also demonstrated that the phase information could be obtained independently from the absorption component of the object.