Phase extraction from randomly phase-shifted interferograms by combining principal component analysis and least squares method

A method combining the principal component analysis (PCA) and the least squares method (LSM) is proposed to extract the phase from interferograms with random phase shifts. The method estimates the initial phase by PCA, and then determines the correct global phase sign and reduces the residual phase error by LSM. Some factors that may influence the performance of the proposed method are analyzed and discussed, such as the number of frames used, the number of fringes in interferogram and the amplitude of random phase shifts. Numerical simulations and optical experiments are implemented to verify the effectiveness of this method. The proposed method is suitable for randomly phase-shifted interferograms.