Phase-shifting laser diode interferometer using pulse modulation

Appl Opt. 2012 Jun 20;51(18):4109-12. doi: 10.1364/AO.51.004109.

Abstract

A phase-shifting laser diode interferometer that uses direct pulse modulation is proposed and demonstrated. We found that a laser beam with a wide range of wavelength variation at constant optical power could be generated when a pulsed current was injected into the laser diode. We constructed a highly accurate interferometer by using a pair of interferometers. Several experiments, such as observations of temporal interference signals and spatial interferograms, measurement of a concave mirror, and duplicate measurements, confirmed the characteristics of pulse modulation and demonstrated the effectiveness of our technique.