Three wavelength quantitative imaging systems
AssigneeUT-Battelle, LLC
InventorsChristopher J. Mann, Philip R. Bingham
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical system includes more than two optical interferometers that generate interference phenomena between optical waves to measure a plurality of distances, a plurality of thicknesses, and a plurality of indices of refraction of a sample. An electromagnetic detector receives an output of the optical interferometers to render a magnified image of at least a portion of the sample. A controller reduces or eliminates undesired optical signals through a hierarchical phase unwrapping of the output of the electromagnetic detector.
Claims21
An optical system comprising:
- a first optical interferometer that generates an interference phenomena between optical waves to measure a plurality of distances, a plurality of thicknesses, and a plurality of indices of refraction of a sample;
- a second optical interferometer optically linked to the first optical interferometer that generates a second interference phenomena between optical waves to measure a plurality of distances, a plurality of thicknesses, and a plurality of indices of refraction of the sample;
- a third optical interferometer optically linked to the second optical interferometer that generates a third interference phenomena between optical waves to measure a plurality of distances, a plurality of thicknesses, and a plurality of indices of refraction of the sample;
- an electromagnetic detector that receives an output of the first optical interferometer, the second optical interferometer, and the third optical interferometer to render an image of at least a portion of the sample;
- and
- a controller programmed reduce or eliminate undesired optical signals through a hierarchical phase unwrapping of the output of the electromagnetic detector and render a magnified image of at least a portion of the sample.
An optical system comprising:
- a plurality of optical interferometers that generates an interference phenomena between optical waves to measure a plurality of distances, a plurality of thicknesses, and a plurality of indices of refraction of a sample;
- an electromagnetic detector that receives an output of the plurality of the optical interferometer to render a visual image of at least a portion of the sample;
- and
- a controller programmed reduce or eliminate undesired optical signals through a hierarchical phase unwrapping of the output of the electromagnetic detector by generating a synthetic wavelength based on an output of a separate optical interferometer and render a visual signal of a magnified portion of the sample.
A method of imaging a sample comprising:
- enabling a plurality of optical interferometers that generates an interference phenomena between optical waves to measure a plurality of distances, a plurality of thicknesses, and a plurality of indices of refraction of a sample;
- enabling electromagnetic detector that receives an output from the plurality of optical interferometers to render a magnified image of at least a portion of the sample;
- generating a synthetic wavelength from the output based on the output of the plurality of optical interferometers and the output of electromagnetic detector;
- deriving a difference between a characteristic of the synthetic wavelength and an ambiguous surface profile;
- and
- rendering a corrected ambiguous surface profile that represents a magnified image of the sample.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.