Quadrature phase detection based on a laser self-mixing interferometer with a wedge for displacement measurement

Abstract

We report a novel and simple method to generate a pair of self-mixing signals with quadrature phase difference in He-Ne laser by introducing a wedge into the external cavity. A wedge phase-shift laser self-mixing effect theory is developed to explain the phase-shift phenomenon, and the relationship between the phase difference and the distance from the center of the iris diaphragm to the center of the spot is given. Then a simple and effective wedge-quadrature laser self-mixing interferometer is established for displacement measurement by the quadrature phase detection method. Experimental results show that the max error is 182 nm for a target displacement of 20 μm. This structure provides a useful exploration for phase-shift signal generation and simplifies the self-mixing signal demodulation process with only a single four-quadrant inverse tangent operation, which has potential application in real-time displacement measurement.