Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nanotechnology, sensor and measurement industries depend on these advances in optical interferometry for accuracy and profitability.

This book presents readers with the latest research in interferometry. Chapters include research done on an approach that can be used to identify the performance of coherence scanning interferometers in the presence of vibration; the permeability engineering of semiconductor photonic devices; several interferometric structures based on bulk optics to achieving optical interleaving; interference lithography; recent results on laser surface patterning using interferometers and femtosecond laser radiation; the realisation of the optical interferometers with the optical MEMS technology; a simple two-ray interferometer tuned by rotation; tuning of interference pattern period by rotation of an interferometer itself; the characteristics of a two-ray interferometer with fixed mirrors; the detection of acoustic fields from bounded ultrasonic beams by using laser interferometry techniques; and the use of lateral shearing interferometry as an important area of general interferometry.

This book is for those who have some knowledge of optics, but little or no previous experience in interferometry. Accordingly, the carefully designed presentation helps readers easily find and assimilate the interferometric techniques they need for precision measurements. Mathematics is held to a minimum, and the topics covered are also summarized in capsule overviews at the beginning and end of each chapter. Each chapter also contains a set of worked problems that give a feel for numbers.The first five chapters present a clear tutorial review of fundamentals. Chapters six and seven discuss the types of lasers and photodetectors used in interferometry. The next eight chapters describe key applications of interferometry: measurements of length, optical testing, studies of refractive index fields, interference microscopy, holographic and speckle interferometry, interferometric sensors, interference spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform spectroscopy. The final chapter offers suggestions on choosing and setting up an interferometer.

These proceedings reflect the work presented at the conference "Interferometry in Speckle Light: Theory and Applications", held at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, (EPFL), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. The event took place from September 25 to September 28, 2000. Thanks to the diligence of the authors, this book has been published just in time for the conference. Writing this preface in July, in anticipation of the conference, we have tried to envisage how this book will benefit the quality of discourse between authors and attendees. "Interferometry in Speckle Light: Theory and Applications" results from a bottom-up approach and is original in several ways. This conference is not part of a series; on the contrary, it is a single event. The idea of gathering scientists and engineers for a general discussion on the theory and the practice of interferometry, involving rough, non-optically polished objects, was "in the air". An opportunity of this sort was not provided by any of the conferences scheduled when the present one was conceived. For this reason, it was easy to convince a small number of renowned researchers, all of them active in the field of holographic and speckle interferometry, to organize a conference. To be specific, they are the people listed below as members of the scientific and local committees. At the same time, a particular circumstance, namely the retirement of Professor L. Pflug, helped to detennine the location of the meeting.

This book presents the fundamental physics of optical interferometry as applied to biophysical, biological and medical research. Interference is at the core of many types of optical detection and is a powerful probe of cellular and tissue structure in interfererence microscopy and in optical coherence tomography. It is also the root cause of speckle and other imaging artefacts that limit range and resolution. For biosensor applications, the inherent sensitivity of interferometry enables ultrasensitive detection of molecules in biological samples for medical diagnostics. In this book, emphasis is placed on the physics of light scattering, beginning with the molecular origins of refraction as light propagates through matter, and then treating the stochastic nature of random fields that ultimately dominate optical imaging in cells and tissue. The physics of partial coherence plays a central role in the text, with a focus on coherence detection techniques that allow information to be selectively detected out of incoherent and heterogeneous backgrounds. Optical Interferometry for Biology and Medicine is divided into four sections. The first covers fundamental principles, and the next three move up successive scales, beginning with molecular interferometry (biosensors), moving to cellular interferometry (microscopy), and ending with tissue interferometry (biomedical). An outstanding feature of the book is the clear presentation of the physics, with easy derivations of the appropriate equations, while emphasizing "rules of thumb" that can be applied by experimental researchers to give semi-quantitative predictions.

Optical methods of measurements are the most sensitive techniques of noncontact investigations, and at the same time, they are fast as well as accurate which increases reproducibility of observed results. In recent years, the importance of optical interferometry methods for research has dramatically increased, and applications range from precise surface testing to finding extrasolar planets. This book covers various aspects of optical interferometry including descriptions of novel apparatuses and methods, application interferometry for studying biological objects, surface qualities, materials characterization, and optical testing. The book includes a series of chapters in which experts share recent progress in interferometry through original research and literature reviews.