Experimental demonstration of distance measurement with a femtosecond frequency comb laser

M. Cui; R. N. Schouten; N. Bhattacharya; S. A. Berg

doi:10.2971/jeos.2008.08003

Journal of the European Optical Society - Rapid publications, Vol 3 (2008)

Experimental demonstration of distance measurement with a femtosecond frequency comb laser

M. Cui, R. N. Schouten, N. Bhattacharya, S. A. Berg

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate that a stabilized femtosecond frequency comb can be applied as a tool for distance measurement in an interferometric scheme. A proof of principle of this method, as proposed by Ye, is provided by measuring a displacement of about 15 cm in air and comparing it to a reference value from a calibrated laser interferometer. The experiment shows that the new scheme easily achieves an accuracy better than one optical fringe.

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