The application of SLM in shearography detecting system

Abstract The paper presents a new shearography system which applies a spatial light modulator (SLM). The system can control the shearing amount and direction as well as introduce the phase shift accurately and automatically, making shearographic testing easier and more practical. Shearography has the known advantages for nondestructive test and strain measurements of being fast, full-field, and having high sensitivity. Traditionally, the shearing amount is controlled by adjusting a reflector mechanically. Mechanical adjustment of the reflector is slow, inconvenient and not well suited for in-field NDT practice. For application of phase shift techniques, a piezoelectric transducer (PZT), which is usually used for application of phase shift techniques, introduces random error due to its tendency to be nonlinear. This paper introduces a new shearographic detection system with a spatial light modulator. The spatial light modulator controls the liquid crystal by using a birefringence effect and twisted nematic effect. The spatial light modulator can change the phase of the light and shearing amount accurately and automatically, thus eliminating the nonlinear random error in the phase shift method. Furthermore, this system also improves testing efficiency. In this paper, the fundamental of SLM shearography is presented. The capability of this optical configuration is demonstrated theoretically as well as through experiments.