Sub-millimeter depth-resolved digital holography

We present sub-millimeter full-field depth from focus digital holography of surface topography of rough objects. For each pixel, the depth of the object is calculated from the variance of the intensity image over a set of reconstruction distances. First, we theoretically describe the axial resolution of this method and show that sub-millimeter resolution is feasible. Second, using a digital holography setup without magnifying optics or lateral scanning we experimentally demonstrate 100 μm axial resolution depth ranging and surface topography imaging. This is significantly better than what has previously been reported using digital holography and could make this technique useful for rapid large-area characterization of surface topography of objects.