Real-time holographic interferometry with double two-wave mixing in photorefractive crystals

We present a real-time holographic interferometer for which two reference waves of different phases are created by two-wave mixing with a stationary signal wave in a photorefractive crystal. These waves are reconstructions of the stationary signal wave and interfere with the momentary (changing) signal wave in the manner of a holographic real-time interferometer. A fast change (phase or intensity) of the signal wave leads to different intensity changes in both interferograms that are jointly used for evaluation. With an electric dc field applied to the crystal, a high sensitivity for measuring phase changes (down to lambda/50, lambda = 633 nm) is found, and the sign of the phase change can be determined.