Temperature-Shifted White-Light Interferometry for Equalization of a Fiber Coupler to Near-Zero Path Length Difference

Author

Lally, Evan ; Shillig, Tyler ; Wang, Yunmiao ; Wang, Anbo

Author_Institution

Bradley Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

Volume

21

Issue

13

fYear

2009

fDate

7/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

944

Lastpage

946

Abstract

A method for equalizing the path lengths of two arms of an optical fiber coupler is presented as a critical step towards construction of a high-resolution 3-D interferometric imaging system. Based on white-light interferometry (WLI), the technique combines absolute measurement capability with the ability to accurately measure near-zero path length differences. A controlled temperature increase in one arm of the coupler generates a shift in the WLI measurement, allowing the fibers to be polished to near-equal lengths. The technique is demonstrated to equalize the fiber lengths to better than 0.6 mum.

Keywords

image resolution; light interferometry; optical fibre couplers; optical fibre testing; optical images; temperature control; WLI measurement; high-resolution 3D interferometric imaging system; near-zero path length difference; optical fiber coupler; temperature-shifted white-light interferometry; Optical fiber couplers; optical fiber measurement applications; optical interferometry;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2009.2020918

Filename

4838834