Phase-modulating optical coherence domain reflectometry by synthesis of coherence function

Phase-modulating optical coherence domain reflectometry by synthesis of the coherence function is proposed as a promising method for diagnosing optical waveguide devices and systems, and basic experiments are carried out. In this method, a delta-function-like optical coherence function is synthesised by the direct frequency modulation of a laser diode, and scanned by the phase modulation of a reference lightwave in an interferometer. A spatial resolution of ~1.8 mm is achieved with ~18 cm measuring range in basic experiments