Phase measurement of various commercial heterodyne He–Ne-laser interferometers with stability in the picometer regime

In order to be able to resolve displacements of a picometer with widely used commercially available heterodyne interferometers, an advanced phase meter was developed at PTB. Key to this level of accuracy is the use of a state-of-the-art analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) board enabling the implementation of a phase-evaluation method by using embedded field programmable gate arrays. Experimental results obtained with commercially available heterodyne laser interferometer components prove that the proposed phase-evaluation procedure is capable of interpolating an optical fringe down into the picometer regime. The phase evaluation was moreover extended to track simultaneously two heterodyne beat frequencies with only two photodetectors and ADCs. Potential limitations of the long-term stability of heterodyne interferometers are discussed. The phase meter was tested, has been readily applied, can be easily adapted and is therefore to be used in a wide field of applications. (paper)