An optical fiber multiplexing interferometric system for measuring remote and high precision step height

Abstract

In this paper, an optical fiber multiplexing interferometric system including a Fizeau interferometer and a Michelson interferometer is designed for remote and high precision step height measurement. The Fizeau interferometer which is inserted in the remote sensing field is used for sensing the measurand, while the Michelson interferometer which is stabilized by a feedback loop works in both modes of low coherence interferometry and high coherence interferometry to demodulate the measurand. The range of the step height is determined by the low coherence interferometry and the value of it is measured precisely by the high coherence interferometry. High precision has been obtained by using the symmetrical peak-searching method to address the peak of the low coherence interferogram precisely and stabilizing the Michelson interferometer with a feedback loop. The maximum step height that could be measured is 6 mm while the measurement resolution is less than 1 nm. The standard deviation of 10 times measurement results of a step height of 1 mm configurated with two gauge blocks is 0.5 nm.