Optical approach to angular displacement measurement based on attenuated total reflection

An optical approach for angular displacement measurement (ADM) based on the attenuated total reflection technique is presented. As a laser beam is incident upon a planar optical waveguide, an m line is obtained by scanning the incident angle. Theoretical analysis shows that the m line sharply shifts with a tiny variation of the thickness of the waveguided layer. And the specific schemes for ADM, which are based on the angular interrogation and the intensity measurement, are analyzed. The calculated result of sensitivity demonstrates that the intensity measurement is more efficient than the angular interrogation. Furthermore, small incident angles indicate higher sensitivity to the angular displacement than relatively large incident angles for the intensity measurement.