Long distance measurement with femtosecond pulses using a dispersive interferometer.

ABSTRACT

We experimentally demonstrate long distance measurements with a femtosecond frequency comb laser using dispersive interferometry. The distance is derived from the unwrapped spectral phase of the dispersed interferometer output and the repetition frequency of the laser. For an interferometer length of 50 m this approach has been compared to an independent phase counting laser interferometer. The obtained mutual agreement is better than 1.5 µm (3×10(-8)), with a statistical averaging of less than 200 nm. Our experiments demonstrate that dispersive interferometry with a frequency comb laser is a powerful method for accurate and non-incremental measurement of long distances.