Compact and accurate concept of laser wavemeters based on ellipsometry

Karim Ouedraogo (1) , Suat Topsu (1) , Luc Chassagne (1) , Pascal Ruaux (1) , Barthélemy Cagneau (1) , Yasser Alayli (1)

1 LISV - Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes de Versailles

Common laser wavemeters are based on a scanning Michelson interferometer. Displacements of the moving mirror as long as tens of centimeters are needed to reach a relative accuracy of 1 × 10−6 (1σ) on the unknown laser wavelengths. Such a long displacement range makes the system very sensitive to mechanical vibrations and to misalignments of the laser beams. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a new concept of laser wavemeter based on the measurements of the ellipsometric parameters ψ and of the laser beams. Experimental results show that a 10−6 (1σ) accuracy level could be reach with a displacement range of only 4 μm. Implementations of the device are described. Comparisons between our polarimetric wavemeter and a calibrated wavemeter are presented for two lasers, an extended cavity laser diode at 656 nm and a 532 nm green line Nd:YAG laser.

Mots clés: Ellipsometrie; wavemeter; instrumentation

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]; Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]

Karim Ouedraogo, Suat Topsu, Luc Chassagne, Pascal Ruaux, Barthélemy Cagneau, et al.. Compact and accurate concept of laser wavemeters based on ellipsometry. Review of Scientific Instruments, 2011, 82, pp.055102. ⟨10.1063/1.3585975⟩. ⟨hal-00830879⟩