Polarization interferometer for measuring small displacement

Author

Liu, Xinqun ; Clegg, Warwick ; Jenkins, David F L ; Liu, Bo

Author_Institution

Centre for Res. in Inf. Storage Technol., Plymouth Univ., UK

Volume

50

Issue

4

fYear

2001

fDate

8/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

868

Lastpage

871

Abstract

A homodyne polarization laser interferometer is presented for high-speed measurement of small displacements. No modulation technique is used, so the opto-mechanical setup is relatively simple. The dual-beam arrangement enables the displacement to be measured while the use of polarization interferometry enables the determination of the directional nature of the displacement. Another feature of this interferometer lies in the fact that it is also suitable for the measurement of head-media spacing of a hard disk drive. Combined with the electronics used at present, sub-nanometer resolution is achievable. Its measurement bandwidth is limited only by the sampling rate of the A/D board being used

Keywords

displacement measurement; light interferometers; light polarisation; measurement by laser beam; dual-beam arrangement; hard disk drive; head-media spacing; high-speed measurement; homodyne polarization laser interferometer; measurement bandwidth; opto-mechanical setup; sampling rate; small displacement measurement; Displacement measurement; Hard disks; Laser beams; Mirrors; Optical interferometry; Optical polarization; Phase measurement; Phase shifting interferometry; Sampling methods; Wavelength measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/19.948290

Filename

948290