A PC-interfaced, compact laser-diode feedback interferometer for displacement measurements

Author

Donati, Silvano ; Falzoni, Luca ; Merlo, Sabina

Author_Institution

Dipartimento di Elettronica, Pavia Univ., Italy

Volume

45

Issue

6

fYear

1996

fDate

12/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

942

Lastpage

947

Abstract

We describe a laser-diode feedback interferometer for displacement measurements with directional discrimination and resolution better than 10^-6 m. This new, compact instrument consists of a small optical head and a signal processing board, which is interfaced to a personal computer. The prototype developed has a dynamic range of 2 m and an accuracy of about 5 μm/m, using a corner cube as a remote reflector. Thanks to PC interfacing, the displacement is directly available in metric units and errors due to temperature fluctuations can be corrected with software signal processing

Keywords

computer interfaces; computerised instrumentation; displacement measurement; error correction; laser frequency stability; light interferometry; measurement by laser beam; microcomputer applications; peripheral interfaces; semiconductor lasers; signal processing equipment; 2 m; PC interfacing; accuracy; compact laser-diode feedback interferometer; corner cube; displacement measurement; dynamic range; laser-diode feedback interferometer; optical head; personal computer; prototype; remote reflector; signal processing board; software signal processing; temperature fluctuations; Displacement measurement; Instruments; Laser feedback; Microcomputers; Optical feedback; Optical interferometry; Optical signal processing; Prototypes; Signal resolution; Software prototyping;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/19.543990

Filename

543990