Absolute distance measurement (ADM) with high precision is required for various fields of precision engineering, which has long been implemented by means of time-of-flight measurement of a pulsed laser, intensity or frequency modulation of a continuous-wave laser, and cross-correlation of pseudo-random micro-wave signals. Recently, in response to increasing demands on the measurement precision and range beyond conventional limits, femtosecond pulse lasers began to draw attention as a new light source that permits realizing various advanced ADM principles such as synthetic radiofrequency wavelength generation, Fourier-transform-based dispersive analysis and multi-wavelength interferometry. In this talk, we present the state-of-the-art measurement principles and performance demonstrated by exploiting the unique temporal and spectral characteristics of femtosecond laser pulses for high-precision ADM applications.

Date Published: 6 March 2015
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 9446, Ninth International Symposium on Precision Engineering Measurement and Instrumentation, 94464M (6 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2182139

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9446:
Ninth International Symposium on Precision Engineering Measurement and Instrumentation
Junning Cui; Jiubin Tan; Xianfang Wen, Editor(s)