H. Aben et L. Ainola, INTERFERENCE BLOTS AND FRINGE DISLOCATIONS IN OPTICS OF TWISTED BIREFRINGENT MEDIA, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science,and vision., 15(9), 1998, pp. 2404-2411
The appearance of interference blots and of the dislocation of interfe
rence fringes is studied by means of modeling an arbitrary inhomogeneo
us birefringent medium with rotating principal optical axes by a syste
m of two birefringent plates. A theoretical explanation of these irreg
ularities is given. Conditions for the appearance of interference blot
s and fringe dislocations are derived. A method of classification of s
ingular points in the fringe patterns is presented. (C) 1998 Optical S
ociety of America.