The new circular heterodyne interferometer with electro-optic modulation for measurement of the optical linear birefringence

We present a new circular heterodyne interferometer with electro-optic modulation for measurement of the optical linear birefringence. It enables the measurement of not only the phase retardation but also the principal angle. The measurement procedure is carried out in two steps. In the first step of measurements, we use the electro-optic modulated circular heterodyne interferometer and the phase-lock technique to precisely measure the principal axis angle. After rotating the analyzer in the setup, the phase retardation is determined also by the phase-lock technique. The compact configuration requires only a photodetector and two simple phase-lock extractions to determine the principal axis angle and the phase retardation. The validity of the proposed design is demonstrated by measurement of the principal axis angle and phase retardation of a quarter-wave plate sample. The root-mean-square resolutions for the principal axis angle and phase retardation are found to be 0.0396° and 0.0796°, respectively, with corresponding dynamic ranges of 0–180° and 0–180°.     

Linear birefringence parameters determination of a multi-order wave plate via phase detection at large oblique incidence angles

In order to characterize the linear birefringence parameters (LBPs) of a multi-order wave plate (MWP) including ordinary refractive index n_o, extraordinary refractive index n_e and the order number precisely, phase retardation measurement by means of large oblique incidence angle on the MWP has been proposed and demonstrated. However, the effects of spatial shifting and multiple reflections by the MWP depress the accuracy of the measurements significantly. Thus, we propose a retro-reflected geometry in a polarized heterodyne interferometer that can determine the LBPs of a MWP precisely. This method is not only able to reduce the spatial shifting effect but also avoids multiple reflections of the emerging beams. Experimentally, the oblique incidence angle in a range from 30° to 44° was scanned and the highest sensitivity ever for measurements of n_o and n_e for an uncoated MWP was obtained. The detection sensitivity for the refractive indices (n_o,n_e, n_o−n_e) of an uncoated MWP can be up to 10⁻⁶.     

Improved models of optical fiber birefringence—Part I

Current models of birefringence in optical fibers assume that the birefringence vector varies randomly either in direction with a fixed magnitude or simultaneously in both magnitude and direction. Here we propose and then investigate several models in which the stochastically varying amplitude is instead restricted to a limited range.     

Effect of dispersion of linear birefringence upon the sensitivity of an optical current sensor

The dispersion properties of the linear birefringence inside the glass current sensing head of a bulk glass optical current sensor and its effect upon the sensitivity of the sensor are theoretically analyzed and simulated with a computer. The investigation results show that the effect is small enough to be ignored, although it can certainly affect the scale factor of the system slightly. These results might be useful for the researchers and designers working in the optical current sensing techniques area.     

Drawing parameters optimization for birefringence reduction in optical fibers

The impact of the drawing process on the stress-induced birefringence in optical fiber is experimentally analyzed. By means of the photoelastic tomographic technique, residual internal stresses are measured in fiber samples drawn under different conditions of temperature, drawing tension and speed. From measured residual stress distributions, the stress-induced birefringence and beatlength are mathematically derived and compared, proving that an effective birefringence reduction can be obtained by a proper choice of drawing parameters.     

Measuring small wavelength differences by heterodyne interferometry and optical activity of chiral crystal

The optical activity of a chiral crystal and common-path heterodyne interferometry are used in a simple measurement technique that was developed to measure small wavelength differences. When circularly polarized heterodyne light passes through a chiral crystal, the plane of polarization rotates. The phase difference between the right- and left-circular lights is directly proportional to the angle of rotation. The rotation angle depends strongly on the wavelength. The phase difference can be accurately detected and substituted into specially derived equations to estimate wavelength variations. The feasibility of this method was demonstrated and the wavelength sensitivity was about 0.00812 nm. This method provides the advantages of a simple structure, ease of operations, a large wavelength measurement range and high sensitivity.     

Effects of linear birefringence inside sensing head upon bulk glass current sensors’ sensitivity

The effects of the linear birefringence inside a bulk glass current sensing element and the incident polarizing angle upon the performance of a bulk glass optical current sensor are derived and analyzed theoretically. The investigation results show that the linear birefringence will modify the scale factor of the system with a sample function; it can also affect the extent of the influence of the incident polarizing angle, at the same time. When the incident polarizing angle has some special values such as 0, 45, or 90, its effect on the system will be zero. These results might provide some useful reference to the researchers and designers of bulk glass optical current sensors.     

Novel polarization ellipticity angle modulation scheme for analog optical space communication

A novel polarization ellipticity angle modulation scheme is proposed and analyzed. The scheme shows linear modulation property and negligible phase noise. With this method, analog signal such as microwave sub-carrier can be directly encoded onto light carrier, simplifying the integration of traditional RF system and optical space communication system.     

The study of third harmonic demodulation in phase modulation optical heterodyne technique using optical resonator

With the technique of phase modulation optical heterodyne(PMOH), we detected the beat-frequency signal of the reflected wave from a F-P cavity. The frequency of the beat signal was three times of that of the modulation electric field, when the 3rd harmonic of the modulation electric field was used as the phase reference signal. The line shapes of the signal match those of the theoretical calculations, and the dispersion signal has good frequency-discrimination characteristic.     

The PMD of sinusoidally spun fibers in the presence of random birefringence perturbations

Although fiber spinning is known to reduce polarization mode dispersion (PMD) effects in optical fibers, relatively few studies have been performed of the dependence of the reduction factor on the strength of random birefringence fluctuations. In this paper, we apply a general mathematical model of random fiber birefringence to sinusoidally spun fibers. We find that while even in the presence of random birefringence perturbations the maximum reduction of PMD is still obtained when the phase matching condition is satisfied, the degree of PMD reduction and the probability distribution function of the DGD both vary with the random birefringence profiles.     

Alternative method of wavelength drift free dual-wavelength heterodyne interferometry for the absolute distance measurement

Based on the technique of dual-wavelength and principle of heterodyne interferometry, a modified method for measuring the absolute distance is proposed. Because two test lights suffer from the same influence of wavelength drift in the measurement setup, the minus effect coming from the wavelength drift can be offset. Therefore, the measurement accuracy can be significantly increased. The feasibility of this method was demonstrated with a measurement resolution of about 1.50 μm. This method provides the advantages of a simple optical setup, easy operation and rapid measurement.     

基于合成波长法的飞秒激光外差干涉测距方法

本文提出了一种基于合成波长法的飞秒激光外差干涉测距方法.系统采用两个带通滤波器产生两个具有一定波长差的单波长,用于产生合成波长.本方法结构简单,能量利用率高.与双频激光干涉仪在40 mm范围内的比对结果表明,该方法比对残差的标准差为91 nm.     

Numerical investigation of multi-beam laser heterodyne measurement with ultra-precision for linear expansion coefficient of metal based on oscillating mirror modulation

This paper proposes a novel method of multi-beam laser heterodyne measurement for metal linear expansion coefficient. Based on the Doppler effect and heterodyne technology, the information is loaded of length variation to the frequency difference of the multi-beam laser heterodyne signal by the frequency modulation of the oscillating mirror, this method can obtain many values of length variation caused by temperature variation after the multi-beam laser heterodyne signal demodulation simultaneously. Processing these values by weighted-average, it can obtain length variation accurately, and eventually obtain the value of linear expansion coefficient of metal by the calculation. This novel method is used to simulate measurement for linear expansion coefficient of metal rod under different temperatures by MATLAB, the obtained result shows that the relative measurement error of this method is just 0.4%.     

多光束激光外差高精度测量玻璃厚度的方法

利用基于激光外差测量技术和激光多普勒技术的非接触式多光束激光外差测量方法,得到了光电探测器输出电流的谐波表达式.讨论了该测量方法用于玻璃厚度超精密测量的可行性及理论依据,并利用Matlab软件对不同情况进行了仿真实验.结果表明：该方法在不同入射角时测量平板玻璃厚度最大的误差为0.3%,明显比其他测量方法精度高. 关键词： 外差探测 多光束激光外差 激光多普勒技术 非接触式测量     

Optical-frequency dependent modal birefringence and polarization mode dispersion of birefringent single-mode optical fibers over a broadband optical wavelength range

Optical-frequency dependent polarization mode dispersion as well as modal birefringence of three kinds of specially designed hollow-induced birefringent single-mode fiber are measured over an optical frequency range between 345 and 410 THz by optical frequency-domain interferometry.     

Two-dimensional birefringence measurement system with a polarization modulator and a rotating analyzer

The measuring system of two-dimensional birefringence distribution with a polarization modulator and a rotating analyzer using a rotating analyzer method is presented. The system simply consists of a laser diode, two polarizers, two quarter wave plates and a CCD camera. Thanks to an imaging system, the mechanism to scan a sample is unnecessary and two-dimensional measurement is possible and easy. The birefringence of retardation and orientation of the optic axis can be determined by the azimuth angle of an elliptically polarized light passing through a sample. The azimuth angle is obtained by applying the phase shifting algorithm to measure the polarization properties; by improving the calculation algorithm, wide range measurement is accomplished. The measurement procedure and a number of results are described.     

A LabVIEW-based real-time measurement system for polarization detection and calibration

A rapid real-time polarization measurement system was designed and implemented in this paper. The system is centered round a computer running application developed for the purpose. The paper illustrates how to build such an excellent application with National Instruments’ graphical programming language LabVIEW, a synchronized high speed multi-channels data acquisition card and some photoelectric conversion module in detail. With simple and friendly user interface, the experimental result shows that the measurement system has high computational efficiency, high precision calibration matrix, which can be efficiently utilized in experiments relating to the measurement of polarization.     

Photonic RF frequency measurement combining SSB-SC modulation and birefringence

A new technique to instantaneously measure microwave frequency and amplitude is presented and experimentally demonstrated. The architecture described is based on a single sideband modulation with suppressed carrier (SSB-SC) and the measurement of the Stokes parameters at the output of a birefringent medium. The results show errors below 50 MHz in the 59% of measurements carried out in a range from 1 to 11 GHz and an average power error of 0.34 dB. The technique shows the potential to increase the resolution and the range by increasing the differential time delay of the birefringent medium.     

多普勒振镜正弦调制多光束激光外差二次谐波测量微冲量

提出了一种正弦调制多光束激光外差二次谐波测量微冲量的新方法,将激光与工质靶作用产生的微冲量转化为扭摆的转动角度测量,基于激光外差技术和多普勒效应,把待测转角信息加载到外差信号的频率差中,经信号解调后可以得到待测转角值,通过多次测量取平均值的方法可以提高待测转角的测量精度,从而提高微冲量的测量精度。利用这种新方法,以PVC+2%C为工质靶,利用MATLAB仿真测量了激光与工质靶作用产生的微冲量,结果表明:该测量的最大相对误差小于0.8%。     

多普勒振镜正弦调制多光束激光外差二次谐波测量微冲量

提出了一种正弦调制多光束激光外差二次谐波测量微冲量的新方法,将激光与工质靶作用产生的微冲量转化为扭摆的转动角度测量,基于激光外差技术和多普勒效应,把待测转角信息加载到外差信号的频率差中,经信号解调后可以得到待测转角值,通过多次测量取平均值的方法可以提高待测转角的测量精度,从而提高微冲量的测量精度。利用这种新方法,以PVC+2%C为工质靶,利用MATLAB仿真测量了激光与工质靶作用产生的微冲量,结果表明：该测量的最大相对误差小于0.8%。