Obtaining the wavefront phase maps of free form surfaces: using the least squares algorithm

In this work is presented the validation of the least squares algorithm proposed by Morgan (1982) and Greivenkamp (1984), to obtain the wavefront phase maps of a free form surface. The validation was made by simulating the synthetic interferograms of a free form surface using a Bessel function, each interferogram was simulated with a phase-shifting of π/20. This algorithm is applied to the experimental interferograms that are obtained in a Twyman-Green interferometer where the phase shifting is achieved by using a SLM (Spatial Light Modulator) that is placed in one of its arms; the phase shifts are achieved by displaying all the gray levels from 0 to 255 in the SLM. The phase shifts that are performed in this experimental setup are lower than π/4, therefore the conventional algorithms cannot be applied.