Robust measurement of angular velocity based on rotational Doppler effect in misaligned illumination

Abstract

The discovery of the rotational Doppler effect (RDE) provides opportunities to achieve fast, accurate, and contactless measurement of angular velocity. As the RDE signal is sensitive to the illumination light and its scattering characteristic, how to effectively extract the angular velocity of a detected target becomes one of the key difficulties in this measurement technique. Here, we put forward a scattering modified RDE model to fully understand the frequency-domain behavior of an RDE signal in misaligned illumination. A robust strategy based on the peak-to-peak intervals in a wideband spectrum of the RDE signal is demonstrated to acquire accurate angular velocity, without strict requirement to the alignment of illumination and roughness of the detected surface. Furthermore, the feasibility to extract the spin angular velocity from a composite motion of spin and translation is discussed.