Picometer positioning system based on a zooming interferometer using a femtosecond optical comb.
A positioning system based on a new zooming interferometer was developed for calibrating ultrahigh-resolution linear encoders. In the system, the positioning resolution is scaled down from that of the driving stage to that of the controlled stage by a zooming ratio that is determined by the ratio between the wavelengths of the optical sources for the zooming interferometer, so that the resolution in the controlled stage becomes very high. A femtosecond optical comb is used to stabilize two external-cavity diode lasers that are used as optical sources for the interferometer. The system realized a resolution of better than 30 pm and a stability of 1 nm.
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, 305-8563, Ibaraki, Japan. m.kajima@aist.go.jp
Mariko
M
Kajima
Hirokazu
H
Matsumoto
D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007368:Interferometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008846:Micromanipulation / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity