Measuring large amplitudes of mechanical vibrations with laser interferometers

Heterodyne methods of laser interferometry are the most promising methods of measuring large mechanical vibrations, their main advantages being that they are contactless and remote operational, and their main features being high accuracy and reproducibility of readings. However, use of a square-law photodetector and a frequency detector with a laser interferometer requires conversion to single-frequency laser radiation to two-frequency one. An attendant problem is to provide a stable and efficient wideband heterodyne with wide dynamic range for a reference signal with a Doppler frequency shift sufficiently large relative to the frequency of the probing signal. One known method of such interferometry which meets these requirements involves use of an oscillograph and an electronic-counter frequency meter. The principle of this method is outlined on the example of one mirror of a two-beam interferometer, assuming that its vibrations are harmonic. The interferometer for this application consists of a light splitter, a reference mirror, and a movable mirror with a Teflon membrane controlled by a sine-wave generator. The light source is an LG-79/1 He-Ne laser. The photodetector is an FD-21 KP photodiode with a time constant of 6 ns. Vibrations are measured with a Ch3-34A frequency meter.