System and method for phase-readout and active stabilization of optical interferometers

• Main Authors: Reimer, Christian, Morandotti, Roberto, Kues, Michael, Helsten, Robin, Roztocki, Piotr, Jestin, Yoann
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 03.03.2020
• Subjects: COLORIMETRY; MEASUREMENT OF INTENSITY, VELOCITY, SPECTRAL CONTENT,POLARISATION, PHASE OR PULSE CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRA-RED,VISIBLE OR ULTRA-VIOLET LIGHT; MEASUREMENT OF MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS OR ULTRASONIC, SONIC ORINFRASONIC WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS; MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS; MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEARDIMENSIONS; MEASURING QUANTITY OF HEAT; MEASURING TEMPERATURE; PHYSICS; RADIATION PYROMETRY; TESTING; THERMALLY-SENSITIVE ELEMENTS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

A system and method for phase-readout/control and active stabilization on arbitrary interferometric phase in the optical interferometer platform is disclosed. The method makes use of a bi-colored polarization-multiplexed reference laser scheme. The disclosed scheme is based on two phase-locked reference signals with different frequencies that together remove the phase ambiguity. The two signals are polarization-multiplexed (either in free-space or optical fiber implementations) to enable easy separation and combining of these two signals through the use of polarization beam-splitters. The disclosed scheme provides a one-to-one map between phase and feedback signal levels, and enables phase-readout and stabilization even when one of the feedback-signals is at a maximum/minimum.