Michelson interferometer vibrometer using self-correcting synthetic-heterodyne demodulation.

Synthetic-heterodyne demodulation is a useful technique for dynamic displacement and velocity detection in interferometric sensors, as it can provide an output signal that is immune to interferometric drift. With the advent of cost-effective, high-speed real-time signal-processing systems and software, processing of the complex signals encountered in interferometry has become more feasible. In synthetic heterodyne, to obtain the actual dynamic displacement or vibration of the object under test requires knowledge of the interferometer visibility and also the argument of two Bessel functions. In this paper, a method is described for determining the former and setting the Bessel function argument to a set value, which ensures maximum sensitivity. Conventional synthetic-heterodyne demodulation requires the use of two in-phase local oscillators; however, the relative phase of these oscillators relative to the interferometric signal is unknown. It is shown that, by using two additional quadrature local oscillators, a demodulated signal can be obtained that is independent of this phase difference. The experimental interferometer is a Michelson configuration using a visible single-mode laser, whose current is sinusoidally modulated at a frequency of 20 kHz. The detected interferometer output is acquired using a 250 kHz analog-to-digital converter and processed in real time. The system is used to measure the displacement sensitivity frequency response and linearity of a piezoelectric mirror shifter over a range of 500 Hz to 10 kHz. The experimental results show good agreement with two data-obtained independent techniques: the signal coincidence and denominated n-commuted Pernick method.

Improved synthetic-heterodyne Michelson interferometer vibrometer using phase and gain control feedback.

Synthetic-heterodyne demodulation is a useful technique for dynamic displacement and velocity measurement using interferometric sensors as it can provide an output signal which is immune to interferometric drift. With the advent of cost effective, high-speed real-time signal processing systems and software, processing of the complex signals encountered in interferometry has become more feasible. In conventional synthetic-heterodyne demodulation schemes, to obtain the dynamic displacement or vibration of the object under test requires knowledge of the interferometer visibility and also the argument of two Bessel functions. In this paper, a new synthetic-heterodyne demodulation method is described leading to an expression for the dynamic displacement and velocity of the object under test that is significantly less sensitive to the received optical power. In addition, the application of two independent phase and gain feedback loops is used to compensate for the nonideal gain and phase response of the anti-aliasing filter required for the signal acquisition of the received wideband interferometer signal. The efficacy of the improved system is demonstrated by measuring the displacement sensitivity frequency response and linearity of a Piezoelectric Mirror-Shifter (PMS) over a range of 200 Hz-9 kHz. In addition, the system is used to measure the response of the PMS to triangular and impulse type stimuli. The experimental results show excellent agreement with measurements taken using two independent industry standard calibration methods.

On the correct modeling of semiconductor optical amplifier RIN and phase noise for optical phase shift keyed communication systems.

Phase modulation schemes are attracting much interest for use in ultra-fast optical communication systems because they are much less affected by fiber nonlinearities than conventional modulation formats. Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) can be used to amplify and process phase modulated signals. However, existing SOA nonlinear phase noise (NLPN) models are simplistic and, sometimes, inaccurate. It is, therefore, important to correctly model their behavior since NLPN is the main drawback in these applications. In this paper we show that a more accurate model can be used leading to simple nonlinear noise expressions at the SOA output of differential phase shift keying systems. To demonstrate the utility of this model, we have used it to calculate the optical signal to noise ratio penalties introduced by a power booster SOA and the first inline amplifier of a 40 Gb/s NRZ-DQPSK single channel link. The model parameters have been estimated from measurements taken of a commercial SOA.

Multipoint laser Doppler vibrometry using holographic optical elements and a CMOS digital camera.

A laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) is described in which holographic optical elements are used to provide the interferometer reference and object illumination beams. A complementary metal-oxide semiconductor camera, incorporating a digital signal processor, is used to carry out real-time signal processing of the interferometer output to allow multipoint LDV to be implemented.

Random depth access full-field heterodyne low-coherence interferometry utilizing acousto-optic modulation and a complementary metaloxide semiconductor camera.

With analog scanning, time-domain low-coherence interferometry lacks precise depth information, and optical carrier generation demands a linear scanning speed. Full-field heterodyne low-coherence interferometry that uses a logarithmic complementary metal-oxide semiconductor camera, acousto-optic modulation, and digital depth stepping is reported, with which random regions of interest, lateral and axial, can be accessed. Furthermore, nanometer profilometry is possible through heterodyne phase retrieval of the interference signal. The approach demonstrates inexpensive yet high-precision functional machine vision offering true digital random access in three dimensions.