Laser frequency noise is a significant noise source which couples into the main science measurement of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna via the mismatch between the interferometer arm lengths. In this paper we discuss the application of an unequal pathlength heterodyne Mach–Zehnder interferometer to measure and actively stablize the master laser frequency as used in LISA Pathfinder. In co...

A detailed description is given of the Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI), developed at the Space Sciences Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley, which is a high spatial resolution interferometer for mid-infrared wavelengths. The instrumentation, its capabilities and performance, data analysis, science program, and future plans are all discussed. The systemÏs use of heterody...

We perform 3D cross-correlation measurements of the optical field distribution resulting from an ultrashort pulse propagating in 6 meters of multimode fiber. Spatial amplitude and phase distributions of the optical field at the output of the fiber are measured using a time-gated spatial heterodyne interferometer as a function of time delay between the signal and the reference optical fields. We...

We present results on the frequency stabilization of two diode-laser-pumped ring lasers that are independently locked to the same high-finesse interferometer. We measure the relative frequency stability by locking the lasers one free spectral range apart and observing the heterodyne beat note. The resultant beat note width of 2.9 Hz is consistent with the theoretical system noise-limited linewi...

This paper presents a heterodyne common-path grating interferometer with Littrow configuration (HCGIL). The HCGIL can effectively overcome environmental disturbance effect and the DC offset and the amplitude variation of the measurement signals. Experimental results match well with the HP5529A results for long-range measurements. Results also show that the estimated measurement resolution is 0....

The single-mode linewidth of an erbium-doped, single-frequency, fiber ring laser has been measured by using a newly developed loss-compensated delayed self-heterodyne interferometer that has a resolution of less than 600 Hz. The natural linewidth is determined to have an upper bound of less than 2 kHz. In addition, frequency jitter was found to be dominant over the natural mately 4 kHz.

We have developed a modified version of a scanning holography microscope in which the Fresnel Zone Plates (FZP) are created by a homodyne rather than a heterodyne interferometer. Therefore, during the scanning the projected pattern on the specimen is frozen rather than varied as previously. In each scanning period the system produces an on-axis Fresnel hologram. The twin image problem is solved...