Heterodyne displacement interferometer, insensitive for input polarization

Heterodyne displacement interferometer, insensitive for input polarization

Meskers, A.J.H.
Spronck, J.W.
Munnig Schmidt, R.H.

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Precision and Microsystems Engineering

2014-03-24

Periodic nonlinearity (PNL) in displacement interferometers is a systematic error source that limits measurement accuracy. The PNL of coaxial heterodyne interferometers is highly influenced by the polarization state and orientation of the source frequencies. In this Letter, we investigate this error source and discuss two interferometer designs, designed at TU Delft, that showed very low levels of PNL when subjected to any polarization state and/or polarization orientation. In the experiments, quarter-wave plates (qwps) and half-wave plates (hwps) were used to manipulate the polarization state and polarization orientation, respectively. Results from a commercial coaxial system showed first-order PNL exceeding 10 nm (together with higher order PNL) when the system ceased operation at around ±15°??hwp rotation or ±20°??qwp rotation. The two “Delft interferometers,” however, continued operation beyond these maxima and obtained first-order PNLs in the order of several picometers, without showing higher order PNLs. The major advantage of these interferometers, beside their high linearity, is that they can be fully fiber coupled and thus allow for a modular system buildup.

instrumentation, measurement, and metrology
interferometry
metrology
optical design of instruments
optical systems
phase measurement

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bd5deced-cefd-4c44-9df2-c1b4969bd4b0

https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.39.001949

Optical Society of America

0146-9592

http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ol/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-39-7-1949

Optics Letters, 39 (7), 2014

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2014 Optical Society of America