Applied Nanophotonics, Liquid Crystals and Biomedical Optics

A real time phase shift interference microscopy system is presented using a polarization based Linnik interferometer operating with three synchronized, phase masked, parallel detectors. Using this method, several important applications which require high speed and accuracy are demonstrated in 50 volumes per seconds and 2nm height repeatability, dynamic focusing control, fast sub-nm vibrometry, tilt measurement, submicron roughness measurement, 3D profiling of fine structures and micro-bumps height uniformity in an integrated semiconductor chip. Using multiple wavelengths approach we demonstrated phase unwrapped images with topography exceeding few microns.