A proposed design for a polarization-insensitive optical interferometer system with subnanometric capability

A bidirectional, fringe-counting, two-beam interferometer system is described that can be used for precision length measurement with any laser source that is adequately coherent for the application. The two electrical phase-quadrature signals required for bidirectional electronic counting are obtained from photodetectors at the two interferometer outputs. A thin metal film design for the beam-splitter coating introduces the required phase difference of nearly 90° for both the perpendicular and parallel polarization components. Electronic alignment and control are performed by a system used to continuously monitor the signals produced from the outputs and automatically process these signals to achieve the optimum performance from the interferometer. Interferometers using the technique require a limited amount of optical alignment and all of the electronic adjustments are automatically controlled by the electronic system. These instruments are economical to manufacture and easy to apply in practice, readily achieving subnanometric accuracy in the measurement of changes in optical path.