Broadband supercontinuum interferometer for high-resolution profilometry

In this paper, it is shown that a white light supercontinuum source generated in an air-silica microstructured optical fiber pumped with picosecond pulses offers the possibility to improve fringes visibility in interferometric acquisitions. Consequently, this source combined with a spectral interferometer, reaches high-resolution profilometric measurements. Phase calculation based on seven point algorithm can perform theoretically a subnanometer resolution. This method provides a one line profile of large surfaces from the analysis of a single shot image, without any mechanical scanning.