title: Evaluation of phase-shifting approaches for a point-diffraction interferometer with the mutual coherence function.
abstract: The estimation accuracy of a point-diffraction interferometer is examined with two phase-shifting schemes: spatial and temporal. Under the assumption of plane- or spherical-wave propagation through isotropic turbulence that can be accurately represented as a series of thin phase screens, results that are valid for any scintillation regime are obtained by use of the invariance with a propagation of the mutual coherence function. It is established that the estimation accuracy of the spatial phase-shifting point-diffraction interferometer is invariant with scintillation. Upper and lower bounds on the perfor mance of the temporal phase-shifting point-diffraction interferometer are developed. Wave optical simulation results are presented that validate the analytic predictions for the two phase-shifting schemes. The results and techniques presented can be used to assess the appropriate phase-shifting scheme given finite resources, such as a limited number of pixels in a detector array or a restricted detector frame rate.
authors.affiliation: Starfire Optical Range, Directed Energy Directorate, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico 87117, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Barchers
authors.forename: Troy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Rhoadarmer