Accurate laser wavelength measurement with a precision two-beam scanning Michelson interferometer
Abstract
Basic theoretical and practical data are given for a precision two-beam scanning Michelson interferometer, designed for accurate comparison of an unknown laser wavelength with the precisely calibrated wavelength of a reference laser. A theoretical formulation and calculations are presented in which the diffraction effect causing fringe shift is estimated in detail; this effect is the fundamental limiting factor to laser wavelength measurement with the interferometer. The key features of the design and construction of the interferometer and the methods used to record and analyze the data are described. Instrumental errors and their origins and magnitudes are investigated in detail; these include beam deformations and imperfect optical surfaces. Errors from feedback effects and their conditions are calculated.
- Publication:
-
Applied Optics
- Pub Date:
- March 1981
- DOI:
- 10.1364/AO.20.000736
- Bibcode:
- 1981ApOpt..20..736M
- Keywords:
-
- Helium-Neon Lasers;
- Instrument Errors;
- Laser Spectroscopy;
- Michelson Interferometers;
- Tunable Lasers;
- Wavelengths;
- Accuracy;
- Carbon Dioxide Lasers;
- Design Analysis;
- Infrared Lasers;
- Light Beams;
- Optical Data Processing;
- Wave Diffraction;
- Instrumentation and Photography;
- LASERS;
- INTERFEROMETRY