Multi-spectral interference imaging using laser-induced plasma light source

Abstract

Interference imaging techniques are widely used for studying surface and internal structure of various objects. By varying the operating wavelength of the interference system, one can also obtain the information about the spectral properties of the inspected specimen. For multi-spectral interference imaging applications, wide-band high power light sources are necessary. Most of the existing sources suffer from speckle noise, low brightness or high price. In this paper, we demonstrate the applicability of a laser-induced plasma light source for interference imaging and quantitative phase measurements. Narrow-band spectral filtration of its illumination within a wavelength range 240-2600 nm allows to design cost-effective schemes for a variety of metrological applications including digital holography and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.