<title>Optical displacement measurement using a monolithic Michelson interferometer</title>

Abstract

Contactless optical displacement measurement has the potential for a variety of industrial and scientific applications. For highly accurate displacement measurements at distances below 1 m, interferometric methods are preferred over most other methods. This is mainly because of the good resolution and the possibility of doing the measurements in real-time. Furthermore, the use of direct bandgap semiconductor materials also enables the fabrication of a compact interferometer-based device which unites all necessary components, including the light emitter, on a single chip. In this paper, a monolithically integrated optical displacement sensor fabricated in the GaAs/AlGaAs material system is reported. This single chip microsystem is configured as a double Michelson interferometer and comprises a distributed Bragg reflector laser, photodetectors, phase shifters and waveguide couplers. In the course of this paper, we will also briefly discuss possible scientific and industrial applications of such devices.