Using a Savart plate in optical metrology

Non-contact optical measurement methods are essential tools in many industrial and research domains. A family of new non-contact optical measurement methods based on the polarization states splitting technique and monochromatic light projection as a way to overcome ambient lighting for in-situ measurement has been developed1,2. Recent works3 on a birefringent element, a Savart plate, allow to build a more flexible and robust interferometer. This interferometer is a multipurpose metrological device. On one hand, the interferometer can be set in front of a CCD camera. This optical measurement system is called a shearography interferometer and allows to measure micro displacement between two states of the studied object under coherent lighting. On the other hand, by producing and shifting multiple sinusoidal Young’s interference patterns with this interferometer, and using a CCD camera, it is possible to build a 3D structured light profilometer. After giving the behavior of the Savart plate, an overview of the two devices will be given as well as their specifications and some applications.