Auxiliary interferometer in an optoelectronic swept-frequency laser and its application to the measurement of the group refractive index.

Abstract

An optoelectronic swept-frequency laser (SFL) is an optoelectronic feedback system that includes an auxiliary interferometer that can exert precise control over the optical frequency sweep. The arm-length difference (ALD) of the auxiliary interferometer directly affects the performance of the whole system. We established a theoretical model to choose the optimal ALD of an auxiliary interferometer in an optoelectronic SFL system using a frequency-modulated continuous-wave reflectometry experimental setup. The experimental results indicated that, based on our system, the optimal ALD was 7 m, which agreed with the theoretical analysis. As an example application, we implemented the proposed system for measurement of the group refractive index of a glass sample. A minimum measurement error of 0.12% was obtained with the ALD of 7 m.