Accurate carrier-removal technique based on zero padding in Fourier transform method for carrier interferogram analysis

Based on interferogram zero padding and fast Fourier transform (FFT) methods, an effective, straightforward and stable carrier-removal approach in Fourier transform (FT) based method for carrier interferogram analysis is proposed. The spatial carrier interferogram is firstly extrapolated by zero padding method, and the carrier-frequency values within a small fraction of an integral (or a pixel) are estimated from the extrapolation interferogram with FFT method. Then the carrier-phase component is removed by subtracting a pure carrier-frequency phase constructed by the estimated carrier-frequencies in the spatial domain. Numerical simulations and experiments are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method and the results show that the proposed method is effective and stable for suppressing the carrier-removal error in the FT method for carrier interferogram analysis.