Complete fringe order determination in scanning white-light interferometry using a Fourier-based technique.

White-light interferometry uses a white-light source with a short coherent length that provides a narrowly localized interferogram that is used to measure three-dimensional surface profiles with possible large step heights without 2π-ambiguity. Combining coherence and phase information improves the vertical resolution. But, inconsistencies between phase and coherence occur at highly curved surfaces such as spherical and tilted surfaces, and these inconsistencies often cause what are termed ghost steps in the measurement result. In this paper, we describe a modified version of white-light interferometry for eliminating these ghost steps and improving the accuracy of white-light interferometry. Our proposed technique is verified by measuring several test samples.