Pulsed hf laser holographic interferometry

Two-dimensional holographic interferometry has been accomplished at wavelengths near 3 μm. The source is a pulsed hydrogen fluoride oscillator-amplifier system. Transverse excitation is achieved with a fast bank discharging into a simple electrode configuration. The spatial detector is a thin film of bismuth, exposed by local evaporation by a single line of the HF laser emission spectrum. Double exposure interferograms covering areas up to approximately 10 cm2 in the object plane have been obtained with single-line laser energies of less than a joule