Wu, C.
, Lawall, J.
and Deslattes, R.
(1999),
A Heterodyne Interferometer With Subatomic Periodic Nonlinearity, Applied Physics
(Accessed December 21, 2024)
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
A Heterodyne Interferometer With Subatomic Periodic Nonlinearity
Published
Author(s)
, ,
Abstract
A new to our knowledge heterodyne interferometer for differential displacement measurements is presented. It is, in principle, free of periodic nonlinearity. A pair of spatially separated light beams with different frequencies is produced by two acoustic-optic-modulators, avoiding the main source of periodic nonlinearity in traditional heterodyne interferometers. In addition, laser beams of the same frequency are used in the measurement and reference arms, giving the interferometer theoretically perfect immunity from common-mode displacement. We have experimentally demonstrated a residual level of periodic nonlinearity of less then 20 pm in amplitude. The remaining periodic error is attributed to unbalanced ghost reflections, that drift slowly with time.Citation
Applied Physics
Volume
38
Issue
No. 19
Pub Type
Journals
Keywords
ghost reflection, interferometry, nonlinearity, phase error
Citation
Issues
If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.
Created September 1, 1999, Updated February 17, 2017