ABSTRACT
Digitization of phase-modulated carrier signals with a commercially available analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is a common task in many communication and sensor applications. ADCs deliver phase-modulated digital carrier signals, which are numerically demodulated in order to extract the relevant information. However, the limited dynamic ranges of available ADCs limit the carrier-to-noise ratio of carrier signals after digitization. Correspondingly, the resolution of the demodulated digital signal is degraded. We demonstrate a sampling method with a simple demodulation scheme for phase-modulated signals with a small modulation index. Our new scheme overcomes the limitation due to digital noise defined by the ADC. Through simulations and experiments, we provide evidence that our method can improve the resolution of the demodulated digital signal significantly, when the carrier-to-noise ratio of phase-modulated signals is limited by digital noise. We employ our sampling and demodulation scheme to solve the problem of a possible degradation of measurement resolution after digital demodulation in heterodyne interferometers measuring small vibration amplitudes.
ABSTRACT
The heterodyne two-beam interferometer has been proven to be the optimal solution for laser-Doppler vibrometry (LDV) regarding accuracy and signal robustness. The theoretical resolution limit for a two-beam interferometer of laser class 3R (up to 5 mW visible measurement-light) is in the regime of a few femtometer per square-root Hertz and well suited to study vibrations in microstructures. However, some new applications of radio-frequency microelectromechanical (RF-MEM) resonators, nanostructures, and surface-nano-defect detection require resolutions beyond that limit. The resolution depends only on the photodetector noise and the sensor sensitivity to specimen displacements. The noise is already defined in present systems by the quantum nature of light for a properly designed optical sensor and more light would lead to an inacceptable influence like heating of the tiny specimen. Noise can only be improved by squeezed-light techniques which require a negligible loss of measurement light which is impossible to realize for almost all technical measurement tasks. Thus, improving the sensitivity is the only path which could make attometer laser vibrometry possible. Decreasing the measurement wavelength would increase the sensitivity but would also increase the photon shot noise. In this paper, we discuss an approach to increase the sensitivity by assembling an additional mirror between interferometer and specimen to form an optical cavity. A detailed theoretical analysis of this setup is presented and we derive the resolution limit, discuss the main contributions to the uncertainty budget, and show a first experiment proving the sensitivity and resolution improvement of our approach.
ABSTRACT
We demonstrate for the first time a waveguide-based frequency shifter on the silicon photonic platform using single-sideband modulation. The device is based on silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) electro-optic modulators, which combine conventional silicon-on-insulator waveguides with highly efficient electro-optic cladding materials. Using small-signal modulation, we demonstrate frequency shifts of up to 10 GHz. We further show large-signal modulation with optimized waveforms, enabling a conversion efficiency of -5.8 dB while suppressing spurious side-modes by more than 23 dB. In contrast to conventional acousto-optic frequency shifters, our devices lend themselves to large-scale integration on silicon substrates, while enabling frequency shifts that are several orders of magnitude larger than those demonstrated with all-silicon serrodyne devices.
ABSTRACT
We report on two multipoint vibrometers with user-adjustable position of the measurement spots. Both systems are using holograms for beam deflection. The measurement is based on heterodyne interferometry with a frequency difference of 5 MHz between reference and object beam. One of the systems uses programmable positioning of the spots in the object volume but is limited concerning the light efficiency. The other system is based on static holograms in combination with mechanical adjustment of the measurement spots and does not have such a general efficiency restriction. Design considerations are given and we show measurement results for both systems. In addition, we analyze the sensitivity of the systems which is a major limitation compared to single point scanning systems.
